


Stranded With You

by KR7PT1K



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Animal Death, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Dogs, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Roller Coaster, Hurt/Comfort, Loneliness, M/M, Major Character Injury, Original Character(s), Post-Apocalypse, Post-War, Robots, Survival, Violence, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:55:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23747953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KR7PT1K/pseuds/KR7PT1K
Summary: [COMPLETED]Friendships aren't common in a place like Stradmouth, a city of barbaric history and massive economical corruption.The land that used to be of thriving futuristic technologies crumbled to the ground at the fingertips of war. Schlatt and Wilbur meet in an abandoned market, their awkward acquaintanceship evolving into something much more..Totally not Fallout based lmao.
Relationships: Jschlatt/Wilbur Soot
Comments: 11
Kudos: 149





	1. Perfect Acquaintances

Wilbur's POV

December 13 2068  
Wilbur Soot

Entry #127

I went out today to the abandoned market that I scouted out the day before. I didn't bring Milo, though. It would be too dangerous for such a precious pup. Anyways, Originally, I was going to snag a couple of snack bars, but I came across another survivor. Sounds absurd, I know. It scared me shitless at first. I thought he was one of those damn marauders. It turns out he was human, like me... Although, he was severely wounded in the leg. He was just about as shocked as I was, but eventually he introduced himself as 'Jonathan Schlatt'. I offered him shelter here at the military base, which is something I'll probably regret later on.. but it's not everyday you see another sentient person out in Stradmouth's wasteland. It's either marauder or a gang of bandits. It's kill or be killed out here. 

Third person POV

~1 DAY AGO~

The orange early evening light bled through the broken, cracked windows of the market. Wil's shoes crunched against the shattered glass and debris on the weathered black and white checkered floor. He glared in disgust at the rotten food filling the old isle racks. There had to be something good around here... every time he had thought he'd found something good, it would end up dissapointing him with a hole full of mold in a place he'd not seen yet. He exhaled slowly, walking down the isle, observing his puff of breath swirl around itself. It was surprisingly cold considering it was still summer. Perhaps winter was nearing.. he should probably start tracking the days..

Wil finally came across a small plastic jar of candies and a couple of oatmeal snack bars near the cash register. Beaming, Wil crammed the goods in his hiking backpack. Satisfied but chilly, he stuffed his hands in his pockets for warmth, he'd better get back to base soon. He wouldn't want to become dinner tonight. 

As Wil walked, he felt paranoid. He felt like he wasn't alone in that store. After learning the hard way, he'd learned to always trust his instincts. Especially considering the circumstances he was stranded in this wasteland. Alone. He crouched against the wooden isle rack, listening.....

As he thought, he heard the crackling of glass under footsteps. He fumbled for his pistol from his belt holister, and held it tightly. He held it so tight his knuckles and fingertips were becoming white. It's a fucking marauder.. Wil thought. He remembered his last fight with one. It wasnt pretty... this time there would be no one to look after him afterwards. The cracking was the only audible sound in the market, aside from Wil's stifled breathing. A couple of tense seconds passed. The cracking stopped. 

....Why wasn't it making any noise this whole time?

Usually, every now and then a marauder would make a hissing sound. It sounded alot like those toy cars you had to wind up, or the soft but quick rattling of a rattle snake... 

...no.. he couldn't take any chances. He swept around the corner..

His trigger finger ceased. That.. was a human. Was it? He wasn't sure.. it sure as hell looked like one.. that or the marauders are evolving. He'd probably regret not killing it right now, it was probably a bandit and he was going to get fucked over right now.....

But bandits never travel alone... they're too much of pussies.

The figure whipped around, Wil not even needing to say a word for it to notice him, it immediately started reaching for its gun, but halting the same way Wil did. They stared at eachother for a couple of seconds before the figure who appeared to be a man, stumbled back. Wil's eyes widened.

"Hello? C-can you speak?" Wil said, still pointing his gun at the man. 

"You're not a bandit, are you?" The man drawled cautiously. 

"No! No course' not.. I hate those motherfuckers.." 

The man restrained a smile.

"Are you wounded..?" Wil gestured towards the man's leg gash.

"Oh..uh.." he eyed Wil suspiciously. "I got caught up with a marauder.. those... those shitwads....." He bit his lip, "Who are you, If you're not a bandit?"

"I'm just a guy trying to survive.. like you. My name's Wilbur. Wilbur Soot." 

"Well, Wilbur Soot, the name's Jonathan (Jebadiah, Jason, what the fuck ever. His real name remains a mystery) Schlatt." He lowered his gun, still suspicious, but nonetheless does it to extend his arm.

Wil accepted his proposal, and shook the man's hand.

"Well, Schlatt, It's not very often you see another person with their sanity still intact."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Schlatt laughed. He stood straight, regretting his decision soon followed by a spike of pain in his leg, and hissing a curse.

"You know.. nice meeting ya' and all but... I should get going right about now.." Schlatt glanced behind Wilbur and at the setting sun. "Tonight I'll try not to get eaten." he turned around.

Wil was desperate. He'd not seen another person that wasn't trying to kill him for three years and when he did meet one they were leaving as quickly as they came? No, not so fast. 

"Wait!" Will called.

Schlatt turned back around, a ray of faded sunlight perfectly hitting his face. 

"I have first aids back at my base! I know basic medicine. I could probably even fix your leg up for you!"

Schlatt cocked his head.

"You don't even have a place to stay right? I have another room.." Wil said.

"How do I know you won't stab me in my sleep?" Schlatt smirked.

Wil huffed. "I don't know? I just won't! Look.." He shrugged, "I haven't seen another person in so long.. i'll admit i'm a little desperate for human interaction." He waved his hands around.

Schlatt almost felt pitiful for him.. but this offer could benefit himself too. If he refused he would certainly die out here. His chances of survival would increase considerably if he went with Wil.... One day. Only one day. He was leaving first thing in the morning.

"Alright. But i'm sleeping with one eye open." Schlatt said.

Wil was ecstatic. "Great! Yes!.....uh.. do you need help walking?" Wil gestured towards Schlatts leg.

Schlatt frowned. "Ah, no I'll be fine. Lead the way."

"Alright.. it's not far from here." Wil said, tracking back his steps. 

Schlatt limped behind

~time skip brought to you by lazy writer~

Schlatt POV

God, my legs were fucking killing me. 'Oh yeah it's not that far' my ass. We did get there eventually. His base is impressive, i've got to say. How'd he even manage to control this military camp up to this point? It's got a concrete bunker and everything. I would've thought a gang of bandits would have raided and taken over this place by now. I'm still a little skeptical of this guy, Wilbur was it? He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to just kill you out of the blue, but you never know nowadays. He showed me to the 'guest' room, it was pretty nice, actually. A single person bed with simple pale blue sheets. A wood stand next to it with a broken digital clock on top. The walls were grey concrete, as everything else was in the bunker. It gave it a secure feel. I wonder who owned this room before the war? There were a couple of paintings on the walls. One above the bed, a framed painting of a small shed next to a lake. Art... I feel mentally reinvigorated. The other painting was next to the door. Another painting, one of a skeleton smoking a cigarette....spooky. This room isn't really all that much interesting, but it'll do for tonight. 

God, i'm exhausted. Wilbur seems like a cool guy. He patched up the gash on my leg. He asked how it happened when he was wrapping it up. I told him I was trying to observe a marauder from a distance. I was sketching it down on my notebook. I'm trying to keep catalog of all the creatures I see, however I wasn't so lucky this time. It was a pretty nasty fight. What I told him was true, but I didn't tell him was that the crew of people I was tagging along with kicked me out shortly after for.... an unknown reason. I say it was pretty fucked up. I really wouldn't be alive if it weren't for this Wilbur guy..

I flopped down on the bed, facing the ceiling...Wilbur's hospitality was really nice so far. He's just nice in general, really. I should stop being so skeptical of him.. 

oh..but I shouldn't.... hah..who am I even kidding. It's not like I have anything to live for anyways..

I dragged my backpack over to me, unzipping the front pocket and slipping out my notepad. I flipped through the pages. Wind wisps.. cave sickles.. ammonial leeches.... I unclipped my portable flashlight from the backpack, clicking the orange button on the top. The white light illuminated the pages and around the notepad, the dust particles in the room now visible. Halluciren... parisin......marauder. Marauders... disgusting creatures. The government..sick enough to combine cockroach and human DNA. And then release the fuckers into the wild! They're practically indistructable.. like any other cockroach. They don't die when you decapitate them. In fact, they're even more deadly when they don't have their head. They start to go all ape shit, swinging their huge claws everywhere. I observed my drawing. Nasty pincers on the face.. could chop your arm right off.. big beady fly - like eyes.. yard long antennas... their hands a thinner and longer version of lobster claws.. pretty sure they threw in a few sprinkles of lobster in there... a human body, with the hard shell of a cockroach. Deformations and layers of shell littered on the torso. The things they did.. terrible horrible things. So many ill creations littering the world. 

I snapped the flashlight back on my backpack, and put the notepad back in its pocket...

I was so immensly exhausted I had no trouble trying to fall asleep. My eyelids become heavy and my mind drifts elsewhere......

............  
\-------------------------


	2. Opportunity

Schlatt POV

He held out his hand. He stood in the middle of a flat, orange desert that seemed to be never ending in all directions. His figure was hazily outlined, he waited patiently for me to take his hand in my own. I walked towards him, no, I ran. I ran as fast as I could..... I felt so sluggish. He was waiting... expecting. My legs were stuck in a state of slowmotion. He stood, still. Hours it seemed like.... hours went by.. he got closer. I desperately tried to run, to take his hand. Each step putting another pound weight on my ankles. He was so close.. in reach.... I reached out as far as I possibly could... touching the tip of his finger....

He dissapeared. Faded away right before my eyes...

Fuck... no! I grasped for his non-existent hand..

Instead a horrendous creature took his place.. A big deformed face with eyes mulitple different shapes, sizes, and colors, face full of scabs and blotched flesh of different shades of red and brown.. Its body was hard to look at.. a big blob of flaps and scales .. many thin long black 'arms' (don't get wrong idea lol) extended from behind iteself, surrounding me. Its face opened its mouth abnormally wide.. revealing rows of jagged discolored teeth.. had to be about 12 cm long..

Horror and dread enveloped me, I stood paralyzed, rooted to the ground, gazing upon the creature.

It got closer, its mouth getting increasingly wider, revealing more saliva and uneven rows of fangs. 

I tried to move back, but I was stopped by a wall of what seemed like its own flesh. I cringed in disgust and horror. I curled up in a hopeless ball, sobbing into my hands, waiting in anguish for the creature to consume me-

\-------------------

I flinched, gasping softly. Tears soaked the area on the pillow beneath my eyes. What a terrible dream.. I sat upwards, rubbing my eyes. My cheeks felt dry from the tears, and my eyes sore and red. 

I just sat in the bed.. simply sat. I sat collecting myself, trying not to remember.

Come on Schlatt, get your shit together. 

I dragged myself out of the bed, half my energy gone already. I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. I went over to the door, opening it. 

The air was.. pleasant. Warm and comforting, smelled like breakfast too..

I saw Wil, but I also saw a dog. A golden retriever, it seemed like. Huh. I didn't know he had a dog.. Confused, I approached him. 

"Uh..Wilbur?" I asked, gesturing at the dog, who was now softly growling at me. Wil flinched a bit, a bit startled. 

"Oh, Schlatt!" Wil smiled, and reached down to calm his dog. "This's just my pup, Milo." Milo glared at me, I'm sure wanting to pounce at me. "I was actually going to make breakfast!" He grinned. 

He looks so much like him...

"Then I was gonna head out again, y'know, explore a bit....." I noticed he was cooking a piece of meat.. I wasn't sure what it was. Kinda looked like a yellowish steak, but...small. I didn't bother to ask him.

"Hey, if you want you can come exploring with me." I could see in his eyes he was begging me to stay. Now, I was originally going to go first thing in the morning, but after my overall nice experience staying here and having had a surprisingly good nights sleep, I'm enticed to stay. 

...

Yeah... that's it. Totally.

"Schlatt?" Wil's voice drove me out of my thoughts. Barely remembering a word he said before I rushed an answer in a panic.

"Oh! Uh.. I- Yeah, sure, man!"

Oh god why did I say that? Why did I agree to go with him? I glanced back at him, he was... so happy... I would feel terrible if I Just changed my mind now.. aghh... but I said to myself I would leave.....

...

Y'know what? I don't regret saying that. This is a new opportunity for friendship.

Keep a positive outlook, Schlatt. 

"That's fantastic!" Wil flinged his hands up, smacking into the pan handle, causing the whole thing to jolt up. "Ow, fuck.." he rubbed his hand. 

"A...-are you okay?" I asked awkwardly, I didn't really know how to react. He looked at me for a second.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine!.." he resumed to cooking. I shrugged mentally, and walked over to the small table in the middle of the room. I swear I saw a smile...huh. Anyways, I sat down at the small, square wooden table. He had two chairs set up, though he only needed one. He set a plate in front of me with the miniature steak on it. I picked up the fork and cut a piece off, biting it off the fork. I wasn't sure what to expect.

..

Oh god oh fuck 

I gagged and spit out the fucking monstrosity in my mouth. I coughed and spit out the half-chewed remains. That shit tasted like vomit. 

"W-what the fuck? Is that fucking cave sickle?

(Yes I changed it shut up)

I cringed as I thought of the nasty creature I just ate. Cave sickles are Mutated rat-sized grubs. They take on the character of a bat, they sleep on the ceiling. When they sleep they arch their back into a crescent shape, hence why they have sickle in their name. Most cave sickles have ugly warts and scabs all over them. Worst part is they also have teeth and hair and shit growing inside them.. disgusting.

Wilbur was laughing his ass off. I tried not to throw up. I totally take back the friendship thing.. (don't worry lads he just kiddin he ain't gonna do that)

( i'll make sure of it hehe)

"Ugh, fuck you... where are we going anyways?" I put my fork down, having lost my appetite. 

Wil was wiping his eyes. "Hah, west.. to Stradmouth.. haha.."

"Stradmouth, eh?" I mumbled. I remember I used to live there. That was the city of technology, they were the first to successfully create flying cars. Unfortunately the ones who started the war too.. "alright, lets get going then." I stood up, climbing up the ladder that lead to the exit of the bunker. I glanced down the hatch for Wil.

~goddamn it's another time skip damn you lazy writer, damn you~

Wilbur POV

I smiled to myself to when he asked if I was okay. It gave me a sense of.. belonging, or comfort. It gave me the small burst of adrenaline I've been needing for far too long...

I kicked a chunk of asphalt, kicking up a wave of dust.

God, I'm really, really, deprived for attention aren't I? Can't blame myself, I've been on my own and all alone ever since the war..

Talking of attention.. I'm going to try to get some right now.

"Hey, Schlatt" We were about almost to Stradmouth, maybe 90%? No, 95% We were walking down the main street, the street that connected every building in this city. The main vein.

Hmm.. The weather was overcast today, it almost seemed like- 

Oh god, I hope it doesn't rain. 

Please, please don't rain...

"What?" He said roughly. Like he was annoyed. "I don't want to make small talk right now, Wilbur." 

Ouch

Something was troubling him. Maybe something before we met? Or maybe it was the cave sickle..

Probably the cave sickle.

(It wasn't the cave sickle) 

..

Schlatt halted suddenly. 

"What happened?" I glanced around. We were in a pretty open area in the city. "What? I don't see anyt- holy shit."

Schlatt POV

holy shit was right. A Halluciren, a couple dozen yards away. It.. it looked exactly looked like the thing in my dream. Another abomination created by the government. Hallucirens are land sirens, not exactly pretty ones.. they lure you with hallucinations, not looks. God no, not looks. The thing looks like a toilet full of diarrhea, a hairless rat, and 2009 Micheal Jackson, all had a gangbang and created this fuckin thing that had one too many chromosomes. The hallucinations they create are of something you miss, dearly. Or anything you want. It lures you. If you get anywhere 2 yards close to the hallucination it'll dissapear, and you're trapped with the creature until it eats you.

Pretty brutal

We are lucky it didn't see us. This one looked injured. It had a couple of what looked like shotgun wounds in its side. There was a couple of pools of black blood scattered about. Gun wounds... peopl-.. but.. but that means there were- I turned around to grab Wil's arm. "Wilbur we have to get out of here right fucking no-" 

...

..

Where the fuck is Wilbur..?

\-------------------------------


	3. Remember Don't Grieve

Schlatt POV

I frantically looked around for any sign of Wilbur... nothing. I would try and yell his name... but.. the Halluciren is.. right there. I pull the revolver from my belt from its sheath. There are people here, and there's more than one.

Wilbur POV

~1 minute ago~

"Wil"

Huh. I swear I heard someone say my nam-

"Wil"

I turned around, scanning the area for the source of sound. That voice... so.. familiar. A mans voice.

I didn't see anything. Was Schlatt not hearing this? God, am I hearing things? I'm really losing mysel-

"Wil!" 

The voice was shouting now. I turned back to Schlatt. He seemed deep in thought.. I don't think I would want to bother him.. I'll just go check out the source of the voice.. I'll be right back... yeah.

"Wil!"

I turned right into a rather.. wide alley way. It seemed to go into a secluded area of the city. It was a small open area in the shape of a circle, with small wooden houses surrounding it. Shady.. but curiosity is getting the best of me. The voice, I've heard it before. I just don't know where..

"Come.." 

Daniel...(rtgame)... he- that isn't real. No, Daniel is dead. He is dead.. 

(Keep in mind Wil doesn't know what a halluciren is.)

"Wilbur..." 

He held out his hand. What did he want me to do? Shake his hand? This is very odd. Somethings wrong, I just don't know what..

"Daniel..? Why would you- are- how are you..?" I was so confused.. releived.. skeptical... "how are you still alive? I thought you... you died in the- that fire down in.. Blackwell.." I teared up. 

He didn't answer. He just held out his hand.. I walked closer, very cautious. It sounds like him.. looks like him.. but is it him? Who else would it be?

I stepped closer

This isn't a trap, right? Why would he do that? I don't know, I don't think he would do such a thing.

I took another step, taking his hand his hand in mine. 

But there wasn't anything to take, he dissapeared, vanished! What just happened? I'm so fucking confused..

I heard footsteps, A lot of them.. I heard laughter, the creaking of wood, and the clicking of guns. Panic seized me, and I ran for the exit.

I felt the pain of something stabbing into my back, and then an intense electrical shock. I fell, hitting my head on the hard-packed dirt. I grunted, trying to pull out the tazer out of my back all while trying not to pass out at the same time. But I guess that was no use.. because a bandit approached me, with the butt of a gun ready to knock me out.

Third person POV

Schlatt sat on the porch against the wall of an old, withered apartment. He tried to think, think of where Wil could've gone. His mind was overwhelmed, flowing with thoughts being overflowed with thoughts. He didn't know why he cared so much for a person he's only known for one day. 

He slammed his head against the wall.

Schlatt POV

Fuck! I can't do anything right. Everything I try to do, I find some way to fuck it up. Everything I touch is ruined. I just can't do anything right.. I can't fucking do anything right... I exhaled heavily, which was dangerously close to ending in a sob.

Great.. footsteps. I didn't bother to pull out my gun. I'm ready to die..

The crunching of sand grew louder, I closed my eyes, awaiting my fate. 

A..a dog. More specifically, Milo. How'd he get out? He must of come out some kind of escape tunnel or alternative exit.. He whimpered, but he didn't seem hurt.

"Hey Milo, boy, what're you doing out here bud?" I held out my hand. He approached me, his paws making the wooden porch creak. Slowly, he raised his head to my hand, inspecting it. He smelled it, probably sensing the stress. "You know... uh.. by any chance where Wilbur is?" Great. I'm talking to a dog. This has what my meaningless life has come to. He softly barked, standing on his hind heels and landing back down with all four feet, like a motorcycle doing a wheelie. He nodded his head, just like a human would. Did-

Did this dog just understand me? Does Wilbur have some kind of super - intelligent mutant hound? Well, time to find out.

I stood up with difficulty, using the wall for support. 

"Can- do you understand me?" 

He nodded again. Holy shiiit.

He ran to a sand patch. He started to make weird limping movements, dragging his paw around in the sand.. Is he doing what I think he's doing? 

'HElP' in big letters in the sand. I stared in awe. So, I was right.

"Do- do you want my help," I pointed at myself, "to find Wilbur..?" 

(Just to make it clear Milo is a genetically modified dog that had his intelligence altered to be higher and comparible to humans' intelligence.)

He nodded. I'm completely baffled.

I made my way down the stairs and trudged towards the spot where I last saw Wilbur, careful not to draw attention from the Halluciren. Talking about the Halluciren, it wasn't moving at all, but it seemed to be alive. It was breathing. Very odd.. 

"Okay Milo," I whispered, "This was the spot I last saw Wilbur." He started sniffing the ground, and eventually starting to have, I hope, a lead onto where Wil went.

I followed Milo, thank god for this dog.. he's my only hope in finding where ever the hell Wilbur went. Milo turned into a large alleyway, with an area shaped like a circle. There were old, wooden houses surrounding the area. This place holds alot of tension.. 

There are faint footprints on the ground, and areas of sand where it looks like something has been dragged. I hope it wasn't Wilbur.. Milo came up to the spot I was inspecting. He whimpered at it. I guess it was Wilbur..

Milo scratched at a door at one of the wooden houses. 

"Okay, bud." I turned the rusted gold handle. Thankfully no danger, by the looks of it. Milo ran to the door at the other side of the house, once again scratching at it. "You know your way around here, don't you?" I sighed, and walked to the door. The house's interior was dimly lit with candles that gave off orange light. Everything was heavily shadowed because of the lighting. The place wasn't at all that bad. There was a campfire, actually. People weren't here that long ago. I opened the second door. The city's park lay ahead, although now instead of green grass is dry, hard soil and rotting trees.... and a bandit camp. There looked like about 4 bandits there. Milo growled.. he went back into the house. I went with him. 

"Is that where- what are you doing now?" He was on his hind legs, trying to nudge a device off the table. I grabbed it before it could fall. "What- what is this?" I turned the silver device around, searching for any hints on what it could be. 

Nothing.

There was a red button in the middle. I was tempted to press it, but I tried to think of the consequences. "What am I supposed to do with this..?" I didn't expect an answer of course. I dragged the tip of my finger across the antenna on the top of the device. Milo grunted, pawing at a piece of large paper on the table. I slowly walked over, careful not to make too much noise. 

The paper didn't have any words on it, just panels of drawings. They looked like they had been drawn by a 6 year old.. the first panel was a drawing of a man that looked like a bandit pointing what seemed like the device near the vicinity another person, who was not a bandit, but a civilian. The second was a picture of the bandit pressing the red button. The third was of another person, who seemed to appear out of nowhere and translucent. The fourth was of the civilian running towards the translucent person. The fifth was of.. bandits surrounding the civilian. The sixth, a bag over the civilian's head..

Did I mention bandits are cannibals?

Does this device summon a hallucination? I didn't know that anybody other than the hallucirens had the tech to do this-

.. 

I stared at the rectangular silver object in my hand, it glinted in the candle light. This device.. the halluciren outside. It all pieces together. The bandits -or someone else- has somehow paralyzed, and taken control of the halluciren, and connected it to this device, in which they take advantage of its powers to kidnap people.. and I thought this world couldn't get any worse...

But I can use this to my advantage.

"Good boy, Milo." I rubbed Milo's head, he was sticking his tounge out. 

I opened the door again, this time device in hand. I pointed the device somewhat near the bandits, and hit the red button. 

A hologram popped up in front of me.

'Targets in vicinity- 4 - bandits-'

I had an option to target all or target specific ones. Obviously, I targeted all.

'Please select subject of hallucination -random civilian, OR bandit #3's desceased daughter-

Wow, that's tough. The device told me that the random civilian would be have the highest chance of success, so random civilian it was. 

'Please designate location for hallucination-random civilian-" 

I pointed the device towards the exit of the park, and I hit the red button again.

"Skretik" I heard one of the bandits say. I believe it means 'prey' in their language. One of them nudged the other, pointing at the hallucination.

'Move location of - hallucination-random civilian-?'

[YES] [NO]

I hit the enter button on yes.

'Please designate where you want the subject-random civilian- to move'

I pointed the device farther away, and hit the button again. I could see in the hologram the hallucination was now 'running' away from the bandit camp to where I designated it to go.

The bandits silently moved out, pulling out their guns and moving towards the hallucination. 

'Keep distancing hallicination-random civilian- away from targets-bandits-?'

I hit yes.... now's my chance. I ran for it as soon they were out of sight. I saw where Wil was, locked up in a cage. 

"Wilbur! Wilbur! Wake the fuck up, I'm gonna get you out of here!" I whispered loudly. I noticed there was a lock on the cage, I fumbled with it.

Wil still hasn't woken up, and I have a limited amount of time here, and I can't get this fuckin lock to open up. The only option I have is to shoot it, and that's going to draw the bandits back here. I have to be quick..

"Wilbur.. come on.." I shook the cage with one hand, while the other pulled out my revolver. He slept on..

I really hope the gunshot wakes him up... I checked to see if my gun was loaded in a rush, and I aimed at the lock. My hands were white and trembling.. I am undoubtedly terrified right now.

Here goes everything..

I shoot the lock, and it falls right off. That was.. loud. I can see Wil stirring in his sleep. I slam the cage open, shaking Wilbur as hard as I can. Fuck fuck fuck fuck... The bandits will be here any moment now..

Wilbur POV

My head hurts like hell.. all I hear is ringing. My vision is blurry, my hearing is weak.. I force my eyes open, someone is shaking me, but I can't tell who. I can hear faint yelling, and gunshots. A lot of gunshots. I start to get yanked up, hard, forcing me to wake up a little. I start running, I don't know why but I do. Someone is holding my hand, running with me. 

All I hear is ringing..

I can see very faintly.. very faintly. Everything is going in slow motion. I see Milo, he's- holy shit I see Milo! He bursts out of the door, he runs too. He jumps at I can barely make out are bandits. They are shooting at us. Milo goes for the throat of what I can tell is the bandit leader, he starts ripping his throat out. The bandit leader falls, and the other bandits stop shooting at us. They halt, and they start shooting- 

They start shooting at Milo. Bandit's blood is not the only blood covering the ground. Milo! I choked on a sob. I yelled, I screamed. I yelled for Milo. I wanted to run back, but I couldn't. There was someone holding me back. I got shoved through a door. The last I saw of my boy was a glint of yellow fur, and a pool of red blood. 

~fuck it's another god fucking damn time skip goddamn it~ 

Third Person POV

Schlatt managed to get Wil to get into an abandoned apartment far, far away from the bandit camp. They were staying the night there, since Wil's base was too far away at the moment. Wil sat on a chair, on the balcony of the top floor, staring absentmindedly at the sunset. He could only think of his dear golden retriever, Milo, who had risked his own life to save him and Schlatt. He loved that dog like a son. Losing him was like losing his own son.

Schlatt POV

I laid on the clunky bed on the top floor trying to sleep, but the events from today kept me wide awake. I stared at the fading pink sunlight seeping through a crack in the apartment wall. I heaved a sigh... it was really my fault he died. It is. And I can't help but feel.. so guilty. I pulled myself up, sitting upright. I ran my fingers through my hair.. I should go apologize. I want to apologize. I want to talk. I want to get some things off my chest. 

I got up, approaching the seat next to Wilburs. I sat in it. He didn't seem to notice I was even there..

He looks broken. He looks like he's on the verge of tears, and he is. 

"I... I am.. really.. sorry man. It was my fault. I- it- I was the one who got him in that position in the first place.."

He shifted his glossy gaze downwards. 

"If by any chance you think this is your fault, it isn't. One hundred percent on me-" 

"No, Schlatt." His voice was trembling. "I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you or Milo. This is all because of my own doing. This is all out of my own naivenees and foolishness.."

I didn't know how to respond. He was somewhat right, but I didn't want to tell him that.

"Don't make it hard on yourself, man. Milo wouldn't want you to beat yourself over this. He would want you to move on, and to remember, but not grieve over him." I unconsciously moved my hand up to his. 

He sighed heavily and shakily. I saw a mix of emotions go through him. He furrowed his eyebrows in anger, then frustration, and he opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't. He relaxed into a more depressed look, and then finally, a look of acceptance.

"Sorry.. you're right.." he slowly moved his fingers in with mine. 

I realized what I had done putting my hand on Wilburs, and I flinched my hand away slightly, but seeing he didn't mind I kept it there, but I was still panicking inside. 

"He wouldn't.." he said. "Thank you, Schlatt.." he tightened his grip. Thank god for the evening darkness covering up the pink dusted across my face. He looked at me, he looked so tired and sad, but yet he still smiled at me. He looked hopeful.

He let go, and stood up. 

"I'm gonna go try and get some sleep.." I nodded, feeling relieved, and the slightest, flattered. 

I should get sleep too..

I walked to the bed I was going to sleep on to find Wil had already taken the spot... I smiled... asshole..

I went downstairs to sleep in the other bed. I threw my backpack on the ground and tucked myself in. I drifted off into the land of sleep once again...  
\------------------------------------------------


	4. J-9087

Third Person POV

Before all of the shenanigans with the bandits and Milo and blah blah blah Wilbur and Schlatt were going to explore. More specifically, west, in the city of Stradmouth. They had finally decided to embark on that quest, and walk down the main street of the city once more. 

As they walked, a depressing aura surrounded them. 

"..wanna talk..? Y'know, take your mind off some things?" Schlatt said. As much he didn't like to admit, he missed the bubbly, happy side of Wilbur. Now he was.. just sad looking. He looked tired, he had circles under his eyes and ruffled up hair. He looked miserable, he wasn't smiling like he usually did, and he didn't seem like he even wanted to go on with this adventure anymore. 

Well, Schlatt couldn't blame him. He just lost his best and only friend. And he was taking it surprisingly well.

"Mnhmm..." Wil said.

Was that a yes or a no? Schlatt thought. He just took it as a yes. 

"...So, what were you? Before the war?" 

There was a passing moment of silence.

"....Well," Wil mumbled, "I was a bartender."

"Really? Where? Maybe I've been there before." Schlatt had never been to a bar in his life. He just tried to keep the conversation going.

"It was down in.. uh.." he paused for a second, looking down. "...In Blackwell. The Blackwell Bar."

"Did- did it have a name?" 

"No. It was literally named "The Blackwell Bar." He scoff-laughed, smiling a little. Schlatt smiled too, but not for the same reasons Wil did. 

That was about all that was said, and another period of silence took place. 

It was early morning. Considering it was literally the apocalypse, the environment around them had never lost its beauty. Orange and yellow rays of dawn sunlight peaked through between the crumbling skyscrapers. They casted a slightly faded hue onto the cracked, grey roads. The orange beams had made its way to Schlatt and Wilbur, illuminating their faces with light. 

There was a slight breeze, wafting past their faces and calmly through their hair. All tension that was previously there was slightly relieved. 

"What where you?" Wilbur sighed.

"What?"

"You know, before the war." 

Schlatt smacked his own head mentally for not knowing what he was talking about. 

"Oh.. I was a medic. Here in Stradmouth. I treated wounded soldiers.. mostly." Schlatt reminisced the simpler times, times when this city was a home to innocent, good hearted people, not infested by bandits and marauders. Seeing the city so.. empty, dirty and abandoned gave Schlatt a sense of nostalgia for the place.

"Really? Where here?" 

"This side of the city, actually." Then Schlatt realized you could see it from where they were. "Look!" He pointed to a very large building, a hospital sized building. 

"Oh.. wow...." Wilbur gawked at the building with wide eyes. "It's massive." 

(Hehe)

"I... I also think that's where they did the experimentations.. in some underground lab.." Schlatt said the last bit in a whisper. Schlatt cringed, knowing all that time he's worked in that facility the halluciren, marauders, and whatever other disgusting creatures were being created were just underneath his feet the whole time.

"Oh.." Wilbur stared off into space a little. "Wanna go explore it?" 

Schlatt flinched. "Are you fuckin' insane, Wilbur?! We don't know what the fuck is in there! There could be another bandit camp, or another halluciren, or even a goddamn marauder Wilbur! For fucks sake Wilbur... are you thinking straight? Did you get hit in the head or something back there?" 

Wilbur's heart sunk a little. "Schlatt- I just- I need- Schlatt I need a little thrill to get- to get my mind off of-" he stuttered, trying not to break down, trying to keep his composure. 

Schlatt knew what he ment. He sighed. "...I know... it's just... so- too risky. Isn't there anything else we can do?"

"Please, Schlatt? This is more than going just for the heck of it. We could find something valuable, like a cool frickin machine gun!" Wil put his hands in a position where it looked like he was holding a gun, and he imitated the movements of shooting it.

Schlatt was defeated, he couldn't turn that down. ".....Fuckin- fine. I have the right to flip you off when we're getting eaten alive by marauders." Wilbur rolled his eyes. 

"Come on, lets go." 

(COME ON VAMANOS))  
~FUCKKK TIME SKIP FUCKUFCKFFNFNJ~

Schlatt lead the way to the secret entrance to the lab. The hospital was kind of creepy, quiet. They were in the waiting room. The sound of silence was almost deafening. The walls were beige, although much of the paint had flaked or worn off by now. The floor was a flilthy grey carpet, some parts torn off or loose. Schlatt grabbed a piece of loose carpet, pulling it upwards. He indicated for Wilbur to come help with a nod of his head.

Wilbur and Schlatt pulled on the carpet, tearing it off the floor underneath. 

There was a silver hatch on the floor. Schlatt grimaced at it.

"How did you know this was here?" Wil asked.

"Uh... I might have snuck out in the middle of the night to find out if some rumors I heard were true.. before the apocalypse of course." He replied quickly. 

"So.. you've been in there before?"

"Yeah.." Schlatt looked down, frowning.  
"Are you sure you wanna go in there, Wilbur?" 

"Yep." Wil grabbed the rusty handle, pulling upwards, trying to open the hatch. "It's stuck." Wil breathed out, straining against the wall. 

"Here." Schlatt kicked the hatch, loosening some of the rust that had built up over the years. "Pull with me." 

They both grabbed on to the handle. 

"1, 2...3!" 

They pulled as hard as they could, and the hatch slowly opened, dust, debris, and rusty chunks of metal fell down the hatch's hole, clunking against the walls. 

"There's no light down there. We're just gonna have to use our flashlights." Schlatt said, and slinged his backpack over his shoulder to unclip his portable flashlight from it. Wilbur unclipped his own.

Schlatt stepped down the ladder down the hatch, and Wilbur followed behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Schlatt coughed, waving his hand in front of him in an attempt to clear the dust. 

The lab was a large, circular shape. The middle had some test tubes. scattered about. Some were still glowing due to chemical reaction, providing the only source of light other than Schlatt and Wils' flashlights. On the ceiling there were a couple of cave sickles, even more disgusting in the flesh, if that was even possible. Wil lead the way, stepping down in to the middle of the lab. He flashed some light on some of the preservation chambers in the lab.  
(Literally the OuterWorlds labs)

"Most of these are empty.." Wil said. 

And empty they were. The majority had nothing inside them or just chunks of flesh. 

It was eerily quiet, they walked cautiously 

"S-should we split?" Wil asked. 

"What? Course' not!" Schlatt scoffed.

"C'monnnn" 

"...." Schlatt hesitated. "....ugh. Fine." Schlatt gave in. "I'll go explore the front. You explore around here." He gestured towards the areas he was talking about. 

"Okay.." Wil said

"And Wil?"

"Yeah?" 

"Please.... be careful."

Wil forced a smile. "Don't sweat it."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Third Person POV

Spectating Schlatt

Schlatt had come across a set of stairs. They let to an overhead room that overlooked the entire lab. He climbed the stairs very slowly, checking each step for any kind of trap or hole. 

Thankfully there weren't any, and Schlatt made it up the stairs without any disturbances. The overhead room wasn't really all that special. Just had a ton of file cabinets filled with useless papers, and walls lined with non-functional computers. There was a desk in the middle with a labtop on top of it. Schlatt had no idea if the computer was still functional, but he stuffed it inside his backpack anyways. 

He rummaged through the drawers, paying no mind to the papers that fell on the floor. 

Useless.. useless.. he thought as he was flipping through the papers. 

Schlatt finally gave up, he took a seat on the chair behind the desk, sighing heavily doing so. He gazed mindlessly at the large sheet of paper laying on the metal desk but thought nothing of it at first. He glided his fingers over the paper, swiping some of the built up dust out of the way. 

Stradmouth   
•

The word revealed itself after Schlatt cleared the area of dust with his finger. The word had a little dot underneath it.

What? 

Schlatt thought, and examined the word, and the smaller words next to it. 

Seamside  
The Auger's Hand  
Wilten'Ro

...these were all locations in Stradmouth. Schlatt slided his whole hand over the paper, clearing a bigger portion of dust. 

This was a map. A map of the whole region. 

Schlatt smiled to himself. He took the paper, knocking off several pencils and office appliances in the process, and shook the paper to get the dust off. He rolled the map up and ran down the stairs with a grin on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Third Person POV

"Wilbur!" Schlatt said. "Wilbur, look!" He held the map up in his hands. 

Wil had found a gem himself, and was waiting for Schlatt to finish talking.

"What?" Wil said.

Schlatt slid down the wall, sitting next to Wil, and held the map in front of both of them.

"I found a map." Schlatt pointed to a large beige square on the map. "You know what this is?" 

Wil hummed in response. 

"It's the air dock for the trainer jets. I know because I went there before the war." 

Schlatt had caught Wil's attention, and he was listening attentively now. 

"Wilbur.." Schlatt grinned. "We could escape! We... we could get out of this fuckin' shithole!" 

Wilbur smiled with Schlatt, but after a few seconds of joy his smile faded. 

"Are you sure there's even any planes left? And where would we even go? The whole world is surely taken over with wasteland by now." Wil questioned.

"We can only see for ourselves. And I don't think war has spread that far. The marauders and other creatures and shit will stay in their only habitable area; wasteland. I.. I think we can do it." Schlatt exclaimed. 

A few moments pass.

"So, what'd you find?" Schlatt eyed the plastic package that Wil held to his chest. 

Wil handed over the package.

Schlatt read the label, his eyes drifting down to the orange pill - like object inside. He stared at it for a second, before bursting in to a manic laughter. 

"A Gro'n'go man?! Dude where'd you even find this?" He wiped his eyes. "These things costed like..." Schlatt counted with his fingers. "Like a millon dollars? Damn." He turned the package over, reading the cursive writing on the back.

Grow'n'go! Grow your own companion today! Thanks to the technology of Uncle Ben corp. YOU are able to grow your own companion with a few simple steps!

• fill a decently sized bowl with 3 liters of clean water. 

• insert the Gro'n'go pill in the bowl. 

• remove the sealed packet from inside the Gro'n'go package.

• with gloves, cut the corner of the packet off with scissors

• pour the activation packet in to the bowl.

• wait for about 4-5 hours.

• enjoy your new, ready-to-play companion!

"I checked already. It's a dog! I believe it's a husky too." Wil pointed to the word husky on the top right of the package.

"Obviously we can't do it right this second..." Schlatt sighed deeply. "We'll do it when we get the fuck out of here. I promise. You might as well start thinking of a name now..."

"I was thinking of New Milo, actually." Wil laughed and stood up, brushing the dust off of him.

Schlatt scoffed playfully. "New Milo it is."

~Oh frick oh fruck it's a time skip~

"This the place?" Wil asked, fumbling with his backpack strap.

"Yep" Schlatt knelt down beside the gate that was bordering the landing site. He slid a hairpin out of his pocket. 

"Are you sure we can't just pull that lock off? It's sure to be too worn to withstand a good tug by now." Wil suggested.

"..I guess we could try. Go for it." Schlatt stepped back, putting the hairpin back in his pocket. 

Wil grabbed hold of the lock, twisting it slightly. 

Clink

The lock broke immediately, falling in to Wil's hand. 

"Well, I guess that's that." Schlatt swung the gate open gently.

Some trainer planes were left, most of them gone, for obvious reasons. But the ones that were left were too damaged to even possibly work. Some had their windshields broken in, some even had their wings torn off. 

No luck so far.. 

But hopes were high. The landing site was a big place. 

"Schlatt! C'mere" Wil slapped the side of a decently sized, silver trainer plane. One that wasn't too bad looking either. It had a few dents and scratches, but it looked In decent condition.

"Nice!" Schlatt admired the plane in front of him. He ran his hand over a steel plate in the front. He felt the crevices where words where embroided. 

J-9087

"J-9087.." Schlatt whispered.

Wil walked over to front where Schlatt was. "It's missing the propeller." He said.

"That, and it's going to need fuel. If there's no problems with the engine or anything. They have a warehouse down by Wilten'Ro where they have all the spare parts and sh-" 

"Already found yourself a new confidante, eh?" A familiar voice only to Schlatt came from behind one of the trainer planes. 

Schlatt slouched against the J-9087, exhaling profoundly. He rubbed his forehead with his knuckle. "Goddamnit..." he muttered. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	5. Left With A Disadvantage

"Already found yourself a new confidante, eh?" A familiar voice only to Schlatt came from behind one of the trainer planes. 

Schlatt slouched against the J-9087, exhaling profoundly. He rubbed his forehead with his knuckle. "Goddamnit..." he muttered.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Already traded Connor for another right hand man, huh?"

"Okay, how'd the fuck you get here?" Schlatt was more irritated than worried. 

"I guess we both had the same idea in mind." Carson tapped the side of the trainer plane he was leaning against on.

Schlatt finally looked up at Carson with a glare. "Whe- where are the others?" Schlatt asked, concerned.

Carson smiled. "Gone. Our little group corrupted ever since you left!" He said the emphasized 'you' through gritted teeth.

"Travis got himself eaten by marauders! Cooper got cannibalized by some bandits...Connor left too! I don't know where the fuck he went.." 

"You're fucking delusional. Don't play dumb. You and I both know I didn't leave."

Carson lost character for a moment, turning a little pale before regaining his composure. "No! You fucking left! Tell me what happened then, huh? What do you remember?" 

(Hmm, did I forget to put a disclaimer for swearing?) 

"At that auto tech shop. You and the others thought you were being sneaky, huh? Leave first thing in the morning and leave me with the marauder outside you knew was there!" 

Carson was dead silent. He'd been caught. 

(Fucking carso-)

Wil stood awkwardly beside the J-9087. He didn't want to be a part of this. He tried to blend in to the shadow the J-9087 casted on to the pavement. He knew he was going to be forced to be a part of it. He just tried to avoid attention for as long as possible for now.

Unfortunately, the odds were not in Wil's favor.

Carson tried to change the topic, averting his glare to Wil. "Who the fuck is this?!" Carson practically cried, he fiercely pointed an angry finger at Wil. 

"That's Wilb-"

"R- remember when- when we had the whole crew on that hilltop, Schlatt?" Carson asked desperately."

"..." 

"Remember you said; 'we'll get out of this shithole one day, gang. We'd fly, we'd drive, hell, you said we'd even walk!" Carson laughed, he'd gone manic. 

"Yeah, but then you fucked it up. None of this would've happened if you hadn't pull that shit-"

"We could've left this hellhole! And now you- you're gonna leave wit- with t-tha-- and you don't even kno- know him!" Carson sniffed, edging closer to a mental breakdown. "We could- we could'v- we-" Carson finally collapsed in to tears, eventually sobbing.

Not Schlatt nor Wilbur said anything, they just watched. Schlatt frowned, not feeling any pity towards Carson. 

"This is so fucking stupid. If you wanted me to stay why'd you kick me out? It doesn't make sense. You were probably just high as fuc- " Schlatt said. 

"N- b-.. w-we wer- we ca- j-just.." Carson sputtered, he was mumbling nonsense now. Schlatt sighed

"You fucked up. Just leave before I shoot you." Schlatt warned. 

"You wouldn't shoot me!" Carson declared. "You wouldn't shoot me..." he repeated to himself.

"Just get the fuck out of here, Carson." Schlatt pulled out his gun, aiming at Carson, checking briefly if the chamber was loaded. 

Carson pulled out his out gun, Schlatt should've shot him right there, but something on an emotional and mental level was holding him back. Carson was aiming it right at Wilbur. His hands were trembling, his grip was tight, fueled by rage. 

Wilbur was rooted to the ground. He was certain if he moved he would die. He even refrained from breathing. His pressed his cold fingers against eachother, anxiety making him fidget. He didn't dare make direct eye contact with Carson, instead he stared at the cracked asphalt under his feet. 

(Imagine an intense cowboy duel song)

"Carson..." Schlatt strained his finger on the trigger, pressing slightly but not all the way. He was hesitating. 

Carson's hands were trembling, the gun swaying in his hands dangerously. 

A deafening crack boomed throughout the area. Then another. Both from separate guns. Wilbur was on his knees, holding a hand to his left ear, wincing. Carson was also on the ground, pressing his hand against his arm, his gun on the ground. 

Schlatt's hands were trembling furiously, which is probably what threw off his aim and hit Carson's arm instead of his head or something else.

...

..Probably..

Schlatt immediately picked up Carson's gun, taking it away from his reach, like a parent taking a toy away from their child.

"Holy shit, Wilbur are you okay?" Schlatt knelt down next to Wilbur.

Wilbur's POV

The pain in my ear was intolerable. When Carson shot his gun it went right past my head. I think it hit my ear, I'm not sure. At first I couldn't hear anything, just ringing, but then it came back to my right ear. I still can't hear in my left ear. Mostly all I can hear is ringing.

"W-what?" I said. I couldn't hear him. I turned my head a little so my right ear was a little bit more exposed to him. 

"Did you get hit?" he moved my hand away from my ear. "He nicked your ear a little.." I immediately placed my hand over my ear again, trying to rub out the pain through my temples. My palm made contact with the part of my ear where the bullet hit it, and that shit hurted. As if the pain couldn't get any worse....

I drifted my eyes to where Carson was supposed to be, he wasn't there. I guess that doesn't matter now, since he's most likely going to get hunted down by marauders tonight. Schlatt was talking, but I could barely make out what he was saying. 

"dude, I can't hear you." I said.

"What?" he was confused.

"I can't hear you" I pointed towards my ear. I took my hand off the side of my head, checking to see if there was any blood. 

Yeah, there was blood. 

"Fuck.." I mumbled. 

"Yeah, you're bleeding from the inside.." he slung his backpack from his shoulder to the ground in front of him. He dug around, eventually pulling out a plastic bag. 

He mumbled something, but I couldn't understand him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Third Person POV

"Just one fucking thing after another.." Schlatt muttered.

He opened the bag, in which it made a zip noise.

The bag had a couple of medical contents inside such as neosporin, bandaids, medical tape, cottonballs, Qtips, and a very small bottle of hydrogen peroxide. 

He took out the bottle first, popping off the cap with the tip of his thumb.

Wil watched. It reminded him of the time he patched up Schlatts leg for him, which was surprisingly only three days ago. It felt like they had been lifelong friends, or at least something longer than three days...well.. they had already been through so much shit together, and helped eachother through it. Maybe it brought them even closer than if all of this shit weren't to happen. 

Schlatt picked up a cottonball, and squirted some of the hydrogen peroxide on to it, perhaps a little excessive amount. He tried to apply the cottonball to Wil's ear, but the liquid kept dripping off.

"Wil..uh.. you don't mind laying down for a second, do you?" Schlatt asked. 

"No! Yeah sure. On the ground?.. or..?" 

"Uh.. you.. you can.." Schlatt was realizing how awkward the favor he was trying to ask Wil was. Instead he sat down, and patted his leg, hoping the message got through to Wil. 

"Your lap..?" Wil asked quietly. 

"Y-yeah! If you don't mind- you don't have t-" 

"No, it's fine.." Wil ungainly layed his head on Schlatt's leg, his head facing towards Schlatt. 

It was a very awkward position. The weight of another person's head (10 - 11 pounds / 4 - 5 kilos) on his leg was a very.. odd feeling. Not to mention Schlatt had to bend over a little bit to reach Wil's ear. 

(Awkward boner moment??)

"I- uh okay.." Schlatt flushed a little, but barely enough to be visible.

(INTENSE SHREKSUAL TENSION MOMENT????)

Schlatt first wiped away the blood with a wipee, in the process Wil was hissing curses under his breath.

Schlatt continued, and squeezed the cottonball over Wil's ear so that the liquid would drop on to Wil's wound. 

It kind of added a pinching feeling to Wil's ear, and he winced. 

"Are you sure we have to do this? Like we can just leave it.." Wilbur asked.

"If it gets infected you're fucked." 

Yeah, that was true. If your wounds ever get infected you are in fact; fucked. 

"What?" Wil shifted a little in Schlatt's lap, making Schlatt nervous. He couldn't hear him due to his 'good ear' facing towards Schlatt's leg.

"Nevermind.."

A white foam (which is the dead germs and shit btw) built up on the wound, and Schlatt swiped it away with the other side of the cottonball. He applies more hydrogen peroxide.

A smaller amount of foam builds up this time, and Schlatt decides he's cleaned it enough. He wiped the remaining foam away, and pulled out the tube of neosporin and a Qtip. 

He unscrewed the cap, applying a pea sized portion of neosporin to the Qtip, careful not to make contact with the tip of the tube.

Schlatt spread the thick substance evenly over the wound, pushing any thickly coated areas over any shallowly coated areas.

Once Schlatt was satisfied, he put all of the neosporin and shit back in the bag, and tried to find a bandaid suitable for Wil's wound.

He eventually found a round bandaid and peeled off the cover. He stuck it to Wil's ear, making sure it covered the entirety of the injury.

"Anndd... you're fixed up." 

Wil sat up, he did feel much better.

"Thanks!" Wil stood up, brushing himself off. Schlatt did so aswell. However, he couldn't ingore the searing pain still coming from inside his ear. 

"No problem, man." 

"Schlatt?"

"Yeah?" 

"I think my eardrum ruptured.." Wil said worriedly.

"Well, shit.." Schlatt said, he lightly turned Wil's head with his hand so his ear was facing towards him. He flinched a little. "I'm sorry... Carson can be... an idiot.." 

"..." Wilbur couldn't retort. He couldn't say 'oh it's fine Schlatt' or 'it's gucci' because in reality it wasn't okay. He lost his hearing in his left ear and now he's at a major disadvantage. "Yeah.. it kinda sucks.." is all he could say. He still had a look of discomfort on his face from the pain. 

Schlatt frowned for a second before retrieving a small, slim, rectangular ciggarette-like case from his pocket. He pulled out a paper thin tab, and handed it to Wil. "Impakt dude. It'll take the pain away for a while, at least." 

"This isn't an LSD tab, is it?" Wil smirked.

"Pfft, no." Schlatt laughed.

Wil almost popped the tab in his mouth without hesitation, and almost immediately felt relief. The pain was gone, and when he touched his ear it was numb. "Thanks, Schlatt." 

"No problem." 

"You wanna go get that propeller now?" Wil nudged Schlatt's arm. 

However, Schlatt didn't answer. He looked he stared off in to space. He looked kinda... sad. Maybe he regretted shooting Carson. They used to be friends after all. 

"You okay?" 

"Wh- Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Lets go."

~tibbmme skieooppp ::::::((((?????~

"It's a type X plane, so we need to look for a type X propeller." Schlatt mentioned.

"Alright.." 

Wil examined a pile of plane parts, rubbing his jaw doing so.

He found a few propellers, but none of them were a type-X, or were severely damaged. 

"C'mere" Schlatt said. He was looking at a propeller behind a glass case. It was in fairly good condition.

"Type-X?" Wil asked.

"Yeah." Schlatt lifted the case off the wall, setting it on the floor.

Wil stepped back, looking for any kind of object to break the glass with. He spots and sets his hand on a steel pipe, handing it to Schlatt.

"Thanks." Schlatt grabbed the pipe and experimentally tapped it against the glass.

"No problem. Why's it in that case though?" 

Schlatt tapped the pipe against the glass a bit harder. It was stronger than he thought. "I dunno. I think it was a celebratory thing for like the type-X model anniversary." 

"Ah.." 

Schlatt thwacked the glass, and it still wouldn't budge. "Wil, I think this is bulletproof glass.." he stood up, jamming his foot into the case, and as expected, it repelled Schlatt's impact.

"Does it have a lock?" Wil suggested. 

"Hmmm," Schlatt noticed the small gold lock on the left side of the case. Yeah, actually." Schlatt sat back down and pulled out the hairpin he was previously going to use on the gate lock. This time, he twisted the lock to see if it would pop off like last time. 

Unfortunately this lock was of higher quality.

Schlatt sat down, trying to figure out the pattern of the lock.

"Hey Wilbur?" Schlatt had something come to mind.

"Yeah?"

"You don't..uh.. mind going down to Wilten'Ro to grab a few laptop parts before we leave, eh? I found a laptop down in that lab, I kinda.. wanna get some juicy secrets out of this thing."

A spark of interest lit up in Wil's eyes. 

"Sure"  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	6. Vibe Check

"Allriight, got it." Schlatt patted the now installed propeller, and dropped his tool on the ground.

Wil uncrossed his arms, admiring Schlatt's work. "Where'd you learn to do that anyways?

"A... friend.. of mine used to bring me here.." Schlatt said.

"Oh, okay..."

Wil had felt he had asked the wrong question, and the awkward silence built up. He quickly averted the topic.

"Um... who.. was that guy back there..?"

"Carson?" Schlatt leaned against the plane.

"I suppos-"

"A stupid fucking idiot, that's who." 

Wil scoff-laughed. "For real, though."

"Okay.. okay." Schlatt rolled his eyes for dramatic effect. "He was the second co-leader to our crew, Conne- my friend being the first co-leader and I being the leader."

"I guess you were pretty important, yeah?" Wil asked, pondering who Conner was.

"Not to them, apparently." Schlatt's tone was gloomy.

"Can.. I ask what happened..?" 

Schlatt hesitated for a moment, before throwing out a 'why not' look at the ground.

"We were going to get a car at an auto tech shop. We had to stay overnight because our base was too far away. We went to 'sleep', and that's when I overheard them talking about their plans on leaving me there, with a marauder of course to ensure my quick and painless death."

"Wow... do.. you have any idea why?" 

"No.. they had no reason to either." 

Schlatt scowled, and bored holes in to the floor like he was re-imagining that exact moment.

"I was the one providing food, the guns, the ammo, everything!" Schlatt started to get angry.

"E-even my own best frie-" Schlatt paused, and stopped himself from saying anything more. 

"Sorry.. It was just.. very unjustified..is all..."

"That's horrible.. I'm sorry I asked.." Wil said sincerefully.

"It's... fine.." Schlatt sighed.

Another tense silence took place. 

It seemed as though those happened more frequently now. 

Wil felt terrible for reminding Schlatt of the past, and frantically tried changed the topic once again.

"...you said something about a laptop?" 

Schlatt noticed Wil was trying to change the topic, and frowned, but nevertheless went along with him."Yeah...yeah. I have no clue on how to fix the fuckin thing, but I'll give it a shot, I guess." 

Schlatt walked over to the door of the aircraft, cautiosly reaching up and opening it. He set foot inside, bouncing his leg a little to test the sturdiness. After climbing in a little bit further, Schlatt made an.. inhuman noise.

"Oh shit!" Schlatt gasped. "Holy fuck, Wilbur look at this!"

Wil peeked inside, gasping a little himself.

A gigantic spider/fly hybrid. Thank god only the shell was left... the thing was huge. At least foot long. 

(1/3 of a yard or 30 cm. I dunno what you non - americans prefer) 

Wilbur cringed at the thought of a massive loaf sized spider with fucking wings flying towards him. He shook the feeling of disgust off.

Schlatt pinched it by its leg, not wanting to make too much contact with it. 

"Jesus.... what is that?" Wil asked, horrified.

"A wisp... or a wind wisp as they call it.."

"Ew! Throw it out!"

"Alright, catch!" Schlatt, without warning, threw the shell at Wil.

"Wh-" Wil caught the spider by instinct, soon followed by flinging his hands in the air and a surprised yelp. The spider launched in to the air, crashing down on to the cement for it to be smashed in to hundreds of tiny pieces.

While Wil was recovering from the traumatizing experience, wiping his hands on his pants in disgust, Schlatt found the fuel tank of the J-9087.

"Damn, It's empty..." Schlatt muttered to himself. 

Well, it wasn't like he was expecting any gas either...

Even if it was, they'd probably have to do a fuel change, which would be a bigger pain in their ass.

Schlatt climbed out, mockingly chuckling at Wil who was still in shock.

"Gas tank is empty.." Schlatt sighed in fatigue. He knew the next step was probably going to get the jet fuel, and he didn't want to do that.

"Wanna go get those laptop parts right now? I really don't want to get that jet fuel.." 

"Sure." Wil said absentmindedly.

"Cool..." 

~aaaaaaorieowdnkdlpllkkkkkjjjjjj~

Schlatt and Wil entered an electronics shop still commonly known as Wilten'Ro. In its prime, it used to sell the newest technology that came out. These were the Wavegame consoles, and the Hyper-Illusion holographic phones, laptops, and monitors. Of course, they still had the older models of laptops and stuff, but they were stored in the back. The storage room.

However, there was a marauder hive in the back.

They didn't know that.

"Do we have to go in there?" Wil asked, trying his best to stay on Schlatt's left side.

"Yeah, it's where all the shit is at." Schlatt opened the storage room door. The storage room was fairly large, about the size of an average thrift store.

The echo of their footsteps across the cold, white (now grey) tile gave the aura a horror movie effect. 

Wil looked around. This place gave an off vibe..

"I don't have a good feeling, Schlatt.." Wil said. He grabbed Schlatt's hand, trying to tug him towards the exit.

"Come on, Wilbur. Don't be a pussyboy." Schlatt laughed and pushed further in to the storage room, examining the shelfs for any parts he could possibly use.

Speaking of...

"Fuuck I forgot to check what parts the laptop needed!" Schlatt sighed. He smirked. "Since you're such a pussyboy, I'll go find a screwdriver." Schlatt handed Wil the laptop.

"Schlatt.." Wil frowned. He knew he was joking, but now wasn't the time for Schlatt to be a cocky bastard. Wil was uneasy. He started to sweat, gripping the laptop with his cold hands. The familiar feeling of nausea stirred in his stomach. 

....the feeling when you slam the door without thinking when you just argued with your mom kind of feeling. 

And now she's gonna one shot you with a chancla kind of feeling.

Yeah..... something was going to go terribly wrong.

And as he learned the hard way, Wil learned to always trust his instincts.

For a while, it was quiet, except for the occasional clinking of metal and the shaking of boxes which Wil desperately hoped was Schlatt

Wilbur bounced his foot and tapped his fingers against the laptop out of anxiety.

He backed up to a wall. He didn't want his back to be exposed. 

Though, he backed up on to something.... unfortunately squishy.

He didn't even want to turn around. He didn't want to know what he just backed up on.

But for survival purposes, he turned his head look at the.. monstrosity.

A fucking h u g e egg. Wil assumed it was a marauder egg.. judging by he had see.. a couple before.

Wilbur might as well just shat in his pants right there because more and more eggs came in to view.

The substance that kept the eggs stuck to the wall might've been even more disgusting than the egg itself. It was wet, like really wet. The sponge in the sink kind of wet. It was a snot like texture, and now Wil had it all over his back and soaked in his coat.

A loud thump echoed throughout the room, disturbing Wil's thoughts.

A loud thump. It sounded like a shelf falling, judging the scraping of metal against the floor and the crashing of boxes falling, it was.

And a yell. Schlatt's yell.

And, there it was, a hiss. The sound of those toy cars you had to wind up. The sound of the soft but quick rattling of a rattlesnake...

Wil hitched his breath.

There was another loud thud. A muffled scream.

"Wi- Wilbur! H-Wil!" Could be heard from far away.

Wilbur scrambled to his feet, the only problem was.. Wil was completely unorientated. He was deaf in one ear. Meaning he couldn't tell the direction the source of sound was coming from. He couldn't tell where Schlatt's voice was coming from.

Fuck

"I- I don't know whe- where your voice it- is coming from! Just- please..!" Wil panicked. What an unfortunate roll of events...

Wil's best hope was just to run around and luckily, but hopefully run into Schlatt. 

Preferably before he got eaten alive

While Wil was running around, Schlatt was surrounded by three marauders, one of them visciously tearing off Schlatt's flesh. Schlatt flung his backpack towards the direction of Wilbur's voice as best he could. 

Schlatt managed to choke out his last words as loud as he could, tears strewed across his face from the pain, praying to any god out there, that Wil heard him. "T-the journal! Read the journ-" 

The marauders finally punctured one of Schlatt's vital organs, and Schlatt fell lifeless to the ground.

Everything was quiet once again, which only made matters worse.

Wilbur ran past isles, praying he came across Schlatt. 

He did, eventually.

The marauders quickly averted their attention towards Wil, and advanced towards him. Wilbur couldn't process what was happening fast enough, and could only stare at what was left of Schlatt. He dragged his eyes down to look at Schlatt's backpack near his feet. He fought off a sob, and he heaved it up, and ran. He didn't look back at Schlatt's body. He didn't look at the marauders. 

He just ran like hell

One of the marauders launched at Wil, trying to latch on to Wil's leg.

But this wasn't a regular marauder. 

It had two pairs of human arms plus the pair of lobster claw arms. 

This was a much bigger marauder..  
so much bigger. As tall and wide as your average doorway.

And it... it had fucking wings. Which is probably why it was able to launch towards Wilbur with such speed.

Wil's mouth gaped.

This was the queen marauder.

The queen marauder (otherwise known as a 'meed') grabbed Wil's foot, making him trip. 

God, he was so close to the door. He could taste the freedom..

He whipped around, and caught the sight of the meed's face up close, that alone would give him nightmares for weeks.

He wrenched at the meed's antenneas, successfully ripping one out.

The meed let go, falling back, screeching in pain, its wings vibrating vigorously.

The rest of the marauders halted to stop and check on their queen. Wil took this chance to make an escape.

He slammed the door behind him, throwing the latch on. 

And of course, he didn't get out without a wound on his leg. 

Wil choked on a sob again, before deciding he would do that somewhere safer. 

He dragged himself to the warehouse where they aquired the plane propeller. He collapsed on to the ground, finally letting go.

He sobbed for hours. At least that's what it seemed like. He beat himself over the fact that if his stupid fucking ear wasn't 'out of order' Schlatt.....would maybe.. have lived..

He knew they shouldn't have gone in that fucking storage room.

Wil ran out of tears to cry. He resorted to sulking against the wall, holding Schlatt's backpack close to his chest. As much as he tried to stop thinking of him it was impossible to do.

He never realized how much he would miss Schlatt until he was gone. His snarky remarks....his asshole attitude......him in general..

While Wil wouldn't admit to himself or Schlatt.. or anyone... that he did have a slight attraction towards Schlatt. 

maybe something more than slight..

But that's off topic! Of course. 

He layed down on the conviniently placed pile of hay, pulling his hood over his head to prevent any hay from going into his eyes. He still was hugging Schlatt's backpack.

God, he would do absolutely anything to have Schlatt back right now. It didn't matter what he'd have to do. He'd do anything. Maybe he would admit his attraction towards Schlatt if it ment he'd come back.

"The journal! Read the journ-" 

The words replayed in his head, making him even more miserable remembering Schlatt's voice. 

Wil gloomily dug out Schlatt's journal, trying to find out the reason why he wanted him to read it so bad.

A lot of drawings... and damn if he wasn't good at it.

Wind wisps...

He smiled remembering that last memory together, but frowned remembering Schlatt wasn't there to make new ones with him.

The pages eventually switched to the topic of a lab.

The lab where they found the map and the Grow'n'Go

It showed detailed context of various rooms. Rooms where they spliced DNA.. rooms where they modified DNA...

He read every word on every page thoroughly.

Then he came across one particular page.

F.E.T.A

Birth without the need of parenting!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	7. Twenty-Eight Hours

Wilbur POV

I still can't wrap my head around what happened yesterday.

And I slept afwully, if you can say I even slept at all.

The warm, white light pierced through the thin skin of my eyelids. I squinted, even though my eyes were already closed.

Morning...

I dragged a heavy hand to my face, intending to rub my eyes, but immediately drop my hand in exhaustion.

I don't even have the energy to lift myself up...

I can't even cry, for fucks sake. I just feel hopeless.

I breathe in shakily, I have to remind myself; there is still hope.

\--------------------------------------

~last night~

F.E.T.A

Birth without the need of parenting!

Wil studied the drawing. It was a large machine, roughly the height of an average house wall. There were two preservation chambers attached to the machine. 

"Thanks to the technology of Uncle Ben corp. YOU can be your own necromancer! Bring loved ones back from the dead with the help of our built in robotic assistance, F.E T.A! She will guide you through the basic steps o-"

'Another product from Uncle Ben, huh?' Wil thought.

It also seemed like Schlatt hadn't finished writing...but that was all the information Wil needed. He was going to bring him back. He needed to bring him back.

Tiny, smudged words caught Wil's eye. 

"fowards, left"  
"414"  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

;)

Oof also 3rd person pov :v

Oh god, he had to go back to the lab.

He held the journal close.

He was alone once again. 

Really alone

He wondered how things would've been like if he hadn't met Schlatt. Would Milo still be alive? Would Schlatt be alive?

If that were to be, and if he had a choice; he would've chosen to never meet Schlatt.

and not because of Milo.

Drip...  
Drip....

Drip.......

After a good 15 minutes of sulking and rubbing anti-septic on his leg wound Wil finally realized he had slept(or waited) out a rainstorm without even noticing.

Was he really that lost in thought? 

Good thing he was under shelter..

He mustered up the energy over the next 10 minutes to lift himself up, he stumbled to the tall, barn -like doors. 

He was going to do this for Schlatt

He pushed one door open with his elbow, not surprised to see the now heavily erroded ground filled with peach-pink tinted puddles. 

The government had fucked up bad. No, more than simply bad. They had managed to fuck up an entire, thriving city and fuck up the atmosphere. 

Two birds with one stone, supposedly.

It was a pinkish color, and very acidic-like. It erroded any hard surface it touched 80% faster than normal water. Athough, its acid-like affects wear off greatly after it hits the ground. Hell, it's even half safe to drink! 

Though, not to mention it also melted your fuckin hand off. 

Although, it only melted your fuckin' hand off if... "pure"

It was an odd rain. It was basically acid rain, but extremely versitile. 

What is meant by this is..

If boiled down and ran through a purifier it could be used as a (safe) drinking water with medicinal properties (regeneration of body parts and such)

If it was ran through an extractor, sprinkled with salt, left to rest, and cut into long thin strips it could be used as a spongy kind of medical tape.

These were only a few examples of many.

It had... a hate-love kind of relationship with survivors.

These survivors (like Wil) found out later on you could protect yourself from "pure" acid rain with any kind of plastic material such as plastic bags, plastic tarp, literally anything plastic.

Yeah, sounds counterintuitive, as acid should aboslutely melt plastic, but y'know, it worked.

Plastic became a sacred resource, the opposite of what it used to be before the war.

Wil got lucky, and whoever came to this warehouse before him placed plastic tarp over the roof. 

He would be dead if they didn't. 

He waddled over to the big doors, pushing them open with his full body weight. He leaned on them to open them rather than using his hands..

The greyish - pink clouds wafted over the city.

As it added an unnatural look to the sky, it was oddly beautiful. The clouds (that would normally be gray) were a dark, musky pink. The sky above the clouds were a pastel pink, its luminous beams trying to penetrate their way through the more shallow areas of cloud. 

He wouldn't need to worry about the rain disintegrating all his shit, thankfully.

Although, he did need to worry about the bandits coming over and repairing the roads.

As fucked up as they were, they still cared about the environment around them more than the government ever did.

Even if they were insane, murderous cannibals.

~AASAAAAAARKKKGBBBBBBFEWQQ AAAA~  
(In other means, time skip)

Well, there he was again. Confused and alone in a place he had no correlation with at all. 

What the fuck was he doing? He wasn't in a movie. He wasn't gonna magically find a sudden urge of mysterious determination and heroically save Schlatt like some kind of novel protagonist. 

It didn't work out like that. Whenever he tried to do something like it, it ended up where he started, or it simply just ended badly. 

Nothing ever worked out for him.

But now was the time for that to change, yeah?

He checked on the journal.

Fowards, left,   
414

Alright.. fowards... he assumed it meant directions. What else would it be? He shifted his position a little, his shoes scraped against the debris on the floor. He took a few steps foward until he came across the first hallway to his left. As the directions told him, he went down the hallway. 

412....413......

Aha.. just as Wil was hoping, a door labeled 414 showed itself.

As always, he opened the door cautiously. And as expected, the machine as described in the journal was there.

It was painfully eerie, as there was no light or sound in the whole place. 

He almost felt like he was in an indie horror game..

He examined the table next to the massive machine.

Was there any fucking instructions on this thing?

He was concerned that the machine needed power to operate, but apparently it ran its own battery. (Schlatt mentioned it in the journal)

He assumed it was for circumstances like these.. 

He glanced back at the journal again, searching for any clue on how to use this thing. 

Nothing...

Wil supposed he had to improvise..

He shined the flashlight around the machine

He found the robot, or F.E T.A he presumed.. it looked like it was meant to be built according to a female model.

It kinda looked like an assaultron. Who knows.. maybe it was modeled after one.

..

By the nine devines!..He was unobservant. Next to... F.E.TA was a very large eye catching red ON button. 

Well, he's got nothing to lose now.

With no hesitation he smacked that red fucker. There was a little bit of flashing lights, a pinch of whrrrrrrrrr, and a finishing strew of k-kkk-kk.

F.E.T.A's "eyes" lit up to a shade of green. It stepped off her.. its platform rather stiffly.

It didn't... do anything. It just stood there.

Wil didn't dare come close. Not with those lethal lookin' claw hands...

"I-uh... hello?" Wil tried to greet it.

"I am F.E.T.A, your own personal guide to being YOUR own necromancer!"

Its head turned to 'look' at Wil. Kinda gave him exorcist vibes. Its voice vaugely resembled a womans'.

It just kinda stared at him. Like it was expecting an answer.

Wil shifted uncomfortably

"I-"

"Please make sure the individual has signed and agreed to our terms and agreement prior to being resurrected. Uncle Ben corp. will not be held responsible for any potential injury to the patient or others concerning this product." 

It said this in a quiet and speedy tone. Like the guy talking at the end of an advertisement.

"Memory loss is 100% preventable here at Uncle Ben! Here are the basics, the first step is understanding the importance the preservation of memory. There are four major sectors of the brain that control memory."

The robot paused for a second, before emmiting a green-tinted hologram containing a colorless picture of a brain from its eye. 

"Hippocampus" 

The hippocampus lit up for a brief second on the hologram.

"The Hippocampus is assosciated with explicit memories, episodic memories, as well as recognition memories."

The robot paused again

"Amyglada"

The amyglada did the same as the hippocampus, and lit up for a second before fading away.

Wil scribbled these sectors of the brain down in the journal, still having no idea what it meant. 

"The amyglada is involved with memories containing fear. It emits stress hormones, which plays a major role in the quality of the preservation of memories."

Pause

"Cerebellum"

As all the others did, it lit up and went away.

"The cerebellum is responsible for the containment of procedural memories, such as how to play the piano."

...

"Prefrontal cortex"

It lit up and faded

"The prefrontal cortex is involved with preforming semantic tasks, such as talking in a specific language and the process of logic"

The robot shook a little, before retrieving the hologram. A cylinder looking container then popped out from the machine.

"To begin, please insert the hippocampus, amyglada, cerebellum, the prefrontal cortex, and a flesh and hair sample into the assemblizer."

Wil turned a little bit pale processing this.

He needed.. parts of Schlatt's brain?

He needed to go back into that hellhole? He needed to cut out pieces of his-

This was much too stressful

"Do I really need to.. do that- cut out the brain myself..? Wh-can't you do it?" Wil was praying to any god out there he didn't actually need to break Schlatt's skull open himself, nonetheless extract his brain..

"If I am provided with the appropiate equipment I can preform the removal of the amygdala, hippocampus, cerebellum, and the prefrontal cortex. Keep in mind the brain needs to be exposed."

Wil panicked

"Wh-what? I-just-I need to do- take the brain out by myself? But you're a fuckin robot, why can't you do that?" 

"I have been specifically programmed to avoid dealing harm to humans, therefore I cannot preform impact to human skulls. Or any type of impact."

Wil sighed, rubbing his cheekbone with his index and middle finger.

"But you only avoid doing it, right? Like- just, please?"

"Only if necessary"

"It's fucking necessary!" 

"It is not necessary"

"N- not- no the fuck- yes it is!"

"It is not necessary"

"Ye-"

"It is not necessary"

Goddamn this robot...

"Hey ca-"

"It is not necessary"

"Listen to me!" Wil bonked its head with his finger

"Can you turn off?"

The machine and F.E.T.A winded down, and F.E.T.A's eyes went dark.

But this was for Schlatt, right? He could..most definitely crack his head and..

What a fukin day  
~A~  
(Time skiiiupp)

Wil held his hand against the latch of the door (u have no idea how many times I wrote doot instead of door) sealing his fucking worst nightmare. He would just run in, grab Schlatt's body and go.. run in and go...

He removed the latch and opened the door as quiet as possible. He snuck around for a while. Sometimes swearing he saw something in the corner of his eye but eventually proved to be nothing. Fortunately, he found Schlatt's body quickly enough. He grabbed him by the arms, dragging him towards the exit.

He never realized how heavy arms are until then..

(Which is on average 8-14 lbs/3-6 kg if u were wonderin')

He moved as efficiently as he could, he couldn't stand this place.

Just as he was out the door, the caught a glimpse of an antennae. He slammed that motherfucker shut. His heart was beating so fast even though that was nothing compared to what happened yesterday.

He decided to carry him bridal-style, to avoid injury to Schlatt's body of course.

He didn't want to look at Schlatt's face, but to hell if he didn't..

He almost looked like he was still alive, though it was obvious he was dead if you looked close enough. But if you ignored the unhealthy paleness of his face, the bloody hole in his stomach, he almost looked like he was just sleeping... just for a very, very long time.

Wil could almost imagine Schlatt's eyes were just gonna pop open and it was all just this big prank, but of course that wasn't going to happen. 

He could only imagine..  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was gonna do it.. he was gonna do it....

He gripped the metal pipe in his hand.. he was already sweating..

He had to do it.

(WARNING if you're sensitive to moderately gory and graphic stuff I reccomend to keep on scrolling until the next time skip)

He felt like a murderer. Even though Schlatt was already dead. And that he hadn't even hit him yet..

He felt like he was going to cry all over again..

His lip quivered..

He was going to cry

He thwacked Schlatt's head, overwhelmed when nothing happened. 

Why, why couldn't the robot do this part?

Wil looked up to glare at the unmoving F.E.T.A

Or FETAss as he liked to call it..

He started to leak a few tears. His vision was a little blurry.

It felt so surreal.. and fucked up..

Wil had only made an equivalent to a bumper dent to Schlatt's skull. It would take much more to extract the brain..

He wanted this over with..

He hit Schlatt's head as hard as he could from an angle as to not damage the brain.. his face was aching from the amount of cringing he was doing.

His hands were on the verge of cramping up due to how tight Wil was gripping the pipe.

It didn't help his hands were already shaking furiously, so he had to grip even harder so they would stop.

He was full on sobbing by the time he made a decent crack in his skull. His hands were covered in blood and a sticky brain substance who-knows-what.. 

His back hurt so bad... 

It was like leaning over a hard math test for hours and hours.

He tried to avoid letting the tears fall on the head.

He felt like if he took the time to observe the situation he would just go insane and do something stupidly dangerous..

So he didn't.

He was sobbing and swinging at this poor man's head.

Could he get any lower than this?

By the time he made a small hole he was going to try and pull the brain out himself, but he remembered he was done.

The hole wasn't damn near big enough to pull out a whole thing, but the robot would have to deal with that, so he didn't care. 

Thank god..

He wiped his eyes with his shoulder. He wasn't gonna recover from this anytime soon..

He turned on F.E.T.A again

"Do your thing.." Wil mumbled shakily. He pointed at Schlatt, and slid his knife and scissors towards F.E.T.A.

He intentionally set Schlatt's face pointed towards the ground so he didn't have to look at him. 

F.E.T.A immediately got to work, removing the brain with little difficulty and cutting out all of the necessary segments with perfect precision. 

...

He needed to step outside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wil spun the cigarette in his finger, sitting down on an old concrete base of a statue of Uncle Ben. The man of miracle, the people called him. 

Some thought otherwise..

He popped the cigarette in his mouth.

He thought otherwise. Uncle Ben was the cause of all this mess. It baffled Wil that more didn't realize that. 

Not that there were many people left to realize that...

Wil pulled out one of the few matches he had from his pocket, biting down on the cigarette. He could already taste the nicotine smoldering against his tounge.

He lit the match almost desperately, lighting the cigarette and flicking the match on to the still wet ground. 

He knew smoking was bad, he wasn't stupid. Yet he still did it. Not very often, but he still did it nonetheless. 

He closed his eyes and inhaled, finally feeling satisfied. 

It was like the lollipop your mother strictly gave you once a month when you were six.

An allowance. 

This was especially considering matches and cigarettes weren't all that common anymore. 

Y'know.. bandits and all...

He blew out the smoke in efforts to create a smoke ring, though it came out as a deformed looking square which he thought to be even more impressive. 

He wheezed a little, feeling the burn of probably cancer in development in his lungs. 

It was fine though. The cure for cancer had already been developed... about.. 30 years ago? Yeah, he snagged a couple vaccines on his way out from blackwell.   
He'd be fine, he had one in his backpack.

He inhaled some fresh air, coughing a little in the process. Doing so, he leaned against the statue's leg, staring into space again.

...

Sometimes he convinced himself this was all a nightmare whenever he saw a halluciren or a marauder or some abomination. Or whenever he peeked outside and saw nothing but an empty, wrecked wasteland, yet every day he woke up to the same shit. 

Exhausting, really. 

Some days he would forget the world outside and hunker down in his bunker and hang out with Milo or read "Of Mice and Men" for the 26th time and still break down and cry every time he read it with the same enduring, vigorous inertia of remorse every fucking time.

That fucking book man.

...

Thing was he didn't have Milo anymore.

Or "Of Mice and Men"..

He inhaled again, savoring the pungent flavor of toxic chemicals.

...

He blew the smoke out from one side of his mouth.

...

He should probably head back to check on F.E.T.A

He flicked the cigarette on the floor, smushing it with the sole of his shoe.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hows it coming along FETAss?" Wil sat down in front of F.E.T.A, who was still on its knees as if it were still operating on Schlatt.

Although he noticed Schlatt wasn't anywhere to be seen, but was relieved to find his brain parts were already in the assemblizer.

Though he was still interested in where Schlatt went.

"Where's... uh.. the patient?" 

F.E.T.A shook a little.

"I have disposed of the body as it serves no purpose up to this point in the operation."

"I-where?" 

"Vaporized, reduced to atoms."

"Okay.."

Wil noticed nothing was in the preservation chamber yet. 

"When does Schl- the patient get... resurrected?" Wil asked anxiously.

"The revival process will commence now. The estimated amount of time it will take to complete be about twenty-eight hours."

Twenty eight hours... not that long, right?

Right..?

He could do that...

Just wait...

"Alrig-"

"Please do not shut down the machine. Doing so may interfere with the maintenance of the memory."

"Oka-"

"F.E.T.A automatons come with varieties of entertainment! Would you care to hear a joke?" 

Fucking hell....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	8. Good Bot

\-------------------------------------------  
"A man walks into a bar, he sees 3 pieces of meat-"

"Already heard it" Wil yawned stretched out on the floor.

Damn this robot was bad..

"Would you like to hear another joke?" 

"Yeah, sure. Give me your best."

"A man walks into a bar, he sees 3 pieces of meat ha-"

"Okay, okay."

Wil glanced back at the preservation tube. 

Twenty-six hours remaining

He groaned, rolling his eyes. Twenty six hours more of this bullshit... 

His ear was acting up again. It hurt like hell now that he didn't have those pain killer tabs Schlatt gave him. 

Probably infected now..

Wil gave the preservation tube another prolonged stare. 

At the moment, there was nothing but a mere outline of a skeleton growing inside. He watched the little nano-bugs build up the bone structure little by little, atom by atom. He found it overly amusing, since he had no other source of entertainment.

He decided he would just fuck around with Feta for the time being.

"Hey Feta, are you conscious at all?" 

Feta turned its head to scan Wil, beeping once.

"Define,'conscious." 

Wil kicked up his leg on the wall.

"Like are you self-aware at all? Do you know what you are? Can you feel any emotion?"

It stayed silent for a minute, like it didn't know the answer itself. 

"I am uncapable of feeling emotion." 

"Well.. you still didn't answer the first question. Are you self-aware? Do you know you're a robot?"

More silence. Wil was intrigued. Was Feta actually self-aware? Maybe he helped it realize.

"I don't know the answer to that question."

Wil winced from the pain from his ear. 

"Do you know it's the year 2068 and the whole world is an apocalyptic, destroyed wasteland?"

"....I do not recall this information."

"Well, kinda makes sense. When was the last time you were used?" 

Feta scanned Wil again.

"The year 2058"

Wil grunted, the pain was now turning into an unbearable ringing.

Feta opened a compartment on her torso. It took out and handed Wil a 24-hour pain killer tab.

"Your distress levels are dangerously high. Please lay down and allow the pain killer to alleviate any stress you previously had." 

Maybe this robot wasn't so bad after all... 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twenty-two hours remaining

...

Well, I think I'm going insane

Wil kicked at the wall he'd been staring at for... oh... three hours? 

He anxiously glanced back over at the preservation tube. The skeletal structure of Schlatt's body was almost complete.

He dragged his hands up his face, rubbing his eyes extensively and pulling at his hair. 

Not even six hours in..

Twenty-two more hours of being bored out of his ass.

The three days he spent with Schlatt seemed to go faster than this. 

Time really flies when you're having fun, huh?

Wil noticed bulky lines on the preservation chamber around where Schlatt's pelvis and chest were. 

He crawled over, inspecting it. There was a little button on the side. Hesitating for a bit, he decided to ask Feta its function.

"Hey Feta, what's this button do?" 

He pointed to the button, the robot scanned it.

"It provides privacy to the individual during stage two and three of the revival process by ejecting a rectangular cloth over the genetalia and chest."

Wil scoff-laughed. (Is there a word for that?) 

Atleast Uncle Ben had some common decency..

"Thanks." Wil mumbled. 

Then..

A truck full of realization yeeted him in to an imaginary wall.

Schlatt was going to be naked

He should have realized sooner. He didn't have any clothes to give Schlatt, did he?

He unzipped his (PANTS) backpack, rummaging through it. He wasn't suprised when he found nothing clothing related.

He assumed this would be a decent time killer. Shopping for clothes in an abandoned store during the post-apocalypse for his friend who was currently growing back in a tube. 

Yeah, sounds legit. 

He unironically bid farewell to Feta, and headed towards the nearest clothing shop he could think of; Seamside.

Seamside was an alternative heaven, people called it. It was more of a mall than a store, but instead of the mini stores that had different brands of clothing from different company's, it was soley Seamside's brand. The rooms were categorized into shoes, shirts, sweaters, hoodies, pants, shorts, every type of clothing you could imagine. The individual floors were categorized into seasons.

It was a giant, mall sized, aesthetic walk in closet, more like it.

Except now, there was a fuckton of graffiti from survivors coming in here and there. Though, Wil always thought it added to the aesthetic.

Seamside was always the first to recognize and apply the newest fashion to their stores, hence why it was highly popular with celeberties, fashionistas and such. 

There were twelve floors, each unique in their own way. On the very top there was a built in casino called Jemrok. It had a lovely overview of the whole city, very popular in its prime.

He walked through the store entrance. There was no need to push the door open, as there wasn't one anymore. 

Perhaps someone took it as a keepsake? 

He noticed a stack of shopping baskets next to him. He grabbed one. Why not?

The purple, pink, turquoise, and moderate blue LED lights lined the walls, stairs and ceiling. They were still illuminated, flickering once in a while. Everything was solar powered, thus why the lights were still even working. 

Anyone taking their first look around could easily tell that the store wasn't designed for children. Neon signs of nude women and unseemly symbols were scattered about on the walls. Despite it, it never bothered Wil. He even thought it gave the place a homey feel. 

Hell, there was even a faint tune playing through the speakers

He felt like he was in one of those post-war comedy movies.

For obvious reasons, the store was for the most part; empty. There were a few shitty torn up t-shirts and shorts here and there, but that was about it. 

Maybe if he looked longer, he would find something atleast half decent..

He wandered around, kinda jamming to the song that was choppily echoing throughout the store. (U can imagine any song u want bbys. Imo it's Plastic Taste - Joji but if u wanna get real fallout vibes it's Jingle Jangle Jingle - Kay Kyser)

He walked past some rusty, empty clothing racks, swinging his basket to the song. 

He found a grey t-shirt with a fair amount of holes in it and was three times his own size, but it was better than nothing. He threw it up in the air, spun around and caught it in the basket.

He patted himself on the back for that one. 

He decided to go upstairs, there wasn't anything interesting down here. He didn't dare use the elevator, otherwise Schlatt would wake up naked with some strange dumbass robot, not knowing the slightest bit what's happened. Wil frowned at the thought.

He smiled, he hadn't had this much fun since.. well... a long time. Unironically, suprisingly. It was a strange feeling of joy. He didn't really know where it was coming from.

He looked up, gazing at the massive neon sculpture of a famous singer back around 2050. Lucy Kuo, he believed her name was.

The second floor mostly consisted of winter clothing, which was perfect for Wil's circumstance since it was currently winter.

Although, there wasn't really anything left. Of course, Wil wasn't suprised. He just picked up anything he could find to give Schlatt a decent variety to choose from. Even if it was dirty and shitty. 

His basket was decently filled with a couple of sweaters, shirts, pants, and shoes. He thought about leaving, but remembered he wanted to go all the way to the Jemrok casino. It was quite a while since he visited that place. He wondered how it was doing now. 

He challenged himself to a workout; to make it to the top as fast as he could. He thought it would be a good time to do it, considering he didn't get outside as much as he wanted to. He wished he could do this with Schlatt... he supposed he would just race against the ghost of him for now. Or maybe he would pretend there was an imaginary demon chasing him. He laughed to himself, remembering childhood memories of turning off the light and zooming up the stairs for the fear of the downstairs demon grabbing his ankles.

He counted to three, sprinting and skipping at the least 3 steps at a time. He knew he looked ridiculous doing so, but nobody was watching him so it didn't really matter.

He was already panting by the time he got to the third floor, but he wanted to go as long as he could.

He eventually made it to the seventh floor, gasping and coughing like he was doing the fitnessgram pacer test.

He stopped at the eight floor's landing, sliding down the wall and watching the sunset through the glass. He sighed, pushing back his curly mass of hair back with his palm. 

He panted, trying to catch his breath.

I'm gonna walk the rest...he thought.

After resting, he trekked up the rest of the staircase, finally arriving at his destination; the Jemrok casino.

As you would imagine, people gambled and played slots there. Rooms could also be rented, though there were only about 10.

Next to the casino was the lounge area holding the infamous view of the entire region. Wil plopped down on a balcony chair, letting the breeze take his thoughts away. 

He managed to fill his basket to the top just by entering the casino. It was a tradition to leave clothing here for new or lost survivors. It was kinda sweet, actually. Wil felt bad for taking so much, so he put back a few pieces of the lower quality clothing. 

He tapped his fingers against the wooden arm of the chair he was sitting on, taking in the sunset's beauty. He hadn't been able to watch the sunset in.. well... a few years. He guessed he just never had the time or just never thought of doing something so trivial. 

He inhaled thoroughly, relieved the air didn't smell like sulfur up here. 

Well, might as well search the place.

Who knows? Maybe he would find a cool ass machine gun. 

He settled on searching the bar first. Some of the most badass things he found were behind the bar. For example: he found an ahegao flamethrower behind a wine cupboard.(don't search it up, don't say I didn't warn u) 

I wish I still had flamer fuel for that thing... he thought.

Wil reminisced the memories of lighting plethoras of giant-fly swarms on fire, then using them as a tasty snack for later. 

Now his flamethrower hangs useless on his weapon rack, longing for the day it be used again. 

Unfortunately, flamer fuel wasn't as common as it used to be nowadays. 

He climbed over the bar counter, searching the cabinets for possible alcoves. 

Mostly, all he found were cigarette butts and torn up pieces of paper or plastic. He dug up a couple of rings and pendants, but none of them were of real value. He kept them just for the hell of it.

Then.. low and behold.. in a secret nook wedged behind the wall and the cabinet; a fine wine bottle. 

Wil grinned. Jackpot. 

The cork was still intact, sealing the red delicacy inside. By now, the wine itself had to be a decade or two old, minimum. As far as Wil knew, fine wine could last for decades if unopened. Although he didn't know for sure. 

There was only one way to find out, right?

Alcoholic drinks were considered a luxury to have, even snobbish. It was a huge flex on everyone. 

He spent 15 or so minutes soley trying to pry the cork off whilst holding the bottle with his legs. He succeded, but with the price of sore hands for the rest of the day. 

He held the bottle tip to his lips, before second thinking it. 

I should probably drink this closer to the preservation chambers...

He was an idiot, but he wasn't dumb. If he was going to get shitfaced drunk, it would atleast be near Schlatt so he doesn't miss his awakening. 

The rest of the way down was seemingly easier. He took his time walking back.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Sixteen hours remaining

Damn, he was gone for a while, wasn't he? He sat down next to Feta, throwing the clothing basket somewhere in the corner. He finally was able to taste the wine, its contents burning against his tounge. Much like the cigarette he had did. 

It didn't smell that pungent, nor did it taste that sour. 

Fuck, if he knew. He hadn't had wine in years. He wouldn't know.

He had a relatively lean figure, so it didn't take much for Wil to get tipsy in about 20 minutes. He thought about saving Schlatt some, but he made no promises to himself. He started ranting to Feta, knowing she would listen.

"T-that shit was fuck-hic-ed up! L-like you mak-hic-e me craaack his skull ooooopen when yooou could h-have done that wi-with no pro-blem! N-nooooo tr-hic-trauma!"

He was about done with a quarter of the bottle, taking out his fustrations on Feta while she stared at him. 

"A-and li-hic-like- I- I had to dr-drag him o-out of tha-t he-hellhole and e-hic-everything!" He sniffed, getting emotional.

"Friiiuuckkk.....he ALMOST l-looked ali-alive when I-hic- I was carrying h-him even though h-he was like.......... a ffffuuuucking hic day old...." 

He coughed, rubbing his face with his sleeves.

"He-he'ssss so cool. He's nice... He ki-kinda look-hic-looked hot b-but I-m n-not into th-that necro-hic-phillia sh-shit...."

Wil frowned, realizing what kind of fucked up shit he said.

"I-im sooorry I-hic- that- I didn't m-mean it l-like thaaat.... I'm just sa-saying he's h-hot is all..." Wil was going to retort again, but left it at that. 

Feta scanned Wil, then turning to Schlatt, her fans were whirring audibly.

"Do you have feelings for him?" Feta asked with a monotone tone. 

Wil flinched and got flustered. He would have felt like he was in highschool again, but then again he didn't go to highschool. 

Y'know, war and stuff.

"N-noo I- mean- I- ye-yeah?" I d-don't fuuuckin' know-hic-"

"He likes you too." Feta turned towards Wil again.

He stared at Feta with wide eyes, pressing his cheek against the cold wall in an attempt to cool himself off. He felt like he sobered up just from shock.

"W-what?" Was all he could say.

"He likes you too" Feta repeated.

"You-hic- thiss better not be a h-hoax! A-are you serious? H-how d-hic- do you know?" Wil had so many questions.

"I have access to his brain. I have access to his memories. I know him more than he knows himself." She said.

"I-I d-dont knoow what tuh saay.." Wil sighed, downing a gulp of wine. He yawned, laying down, bottle up. 

He blabbered some incomprehensible words, convincing himself he was hallucinating. It didn't take much time at all to talk himself to sleep, and he lay unconscious on the floor.

While he was asleep, Feta injected an anti-hangover vaccine into his arm. 

"Gratifying dreams"  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	9. The Other Side?

Schlatt's POV

I collapsed foward on to the ground, hitting the painfully cold concrete floor on my hands and knees. I coughed and gasped, accidentally inhaling the liquid from... well.. I don't know..

I turned around to look behind me, squinting and wiping my eyes, eyeing the tube-like chamber I fell out of.

I turned back around, looking down. I lifted my hand out of the blue-green tinted liquid I was unfortunately covered head to toe in.

"What the fuck..?" I whispered to myself, rubbing the substance between my fingers. It almost had the consistency of lubricant, but it felt almosy grainy. Like swiping your finger across the top of your ceiling fan and rubbing the dust between your fingers. 

Now that I think about it, it's probably residual nano-bugs.

I took a look around, it was relatively dark. Everything about 4 feet in front of me (1.2 metres) was slightly illuminated with a blue-ish light. 

I fully turned around, trying to identify what kind of contraption this was. 

I saw a bunch of lights and buttons and shit everywhere, but the thing that really gave it out was the two preservation chambers attached to the front, one of them I just got ejected out of. 

So, this was a F.E.T.A? Holy shit, what would have had to happen to make using a F.E.T.A necessary?

Normally, people would put a matress or some kind of cushion on the floor so the patients didn't have to go through the situation I was in.. but I guess no one thought of that.

I peeked over towards where the F.E.T.A unit was supposed to be, however, it wasn't there. 

Interesting... how, if anyone, how did they operate this machine on their own?

The last thing I remember was.. getting stabbed by some marauders. I gnawed on my lip. How did I survive? Who or what saved me?

My questions were answered when I lied eyes on the man face down, asleep on the floor. I smiled, relieved. Although he looked like shit... not that he always looked like shit anyways.

My gaze drifted up towards the bottle in his hand. I scoffed. 

Holy shit, fine wine? Where'd he find this? 

I carefully extracted the bottle, inspecting it.

Damn, he drank half of it! Bad night, eh? That is, if the bottle was full in the first place. I looked at Wil again, guessing by the looks of it, it probably was. 

Third Person POV

Schlatt creeped around Wil, trying to find anything he could dry himself off and wear. 

He looked in a couple cabinets before spotting the basket full of clothes in the corner of the room. 

He smacked himself in the head, cursing at himself.

He rummaged through the basket, trying to find something of adequate quality. He found a couple of really shitty t-shirts with a ton of holes in them, so he used those as rags to pat himself down as he dug around the basket. 

Schlatt glanced back at Wil, making sure he was still asleep.

Did he get these clothes for me? 

Schlatt pondered. It was really thoughtful and sweet if he did. If not... well.. why would Wil pick up a bunch of clothes just for himself, if not for Schlatt? 

He picked out the only wearable selection of clothing; a plain grey sweater, black cargo pants and a pair of white Seamside shoes. It wasn't great, and he wished he had his windbreaker and real shoes back..but.. he assumed his old things were long gone by now. 

F.E.T.A units are programmed to neutralize the patient's body to avoid confusion (since there was two of the same person) or spread of disease. All done with a badass eye laser, of course.

He pulled on the sweater, having a little trouble pulling it over himself.

He threw that fucker across the room. If he was going to wear the same piece of clothing for months on end, he wanted damn comfortable ones. 

Schlatt heard some shuffling behind him, and assumed it was Wil at first. Although, they were footsteps, that  
were rather metal sounding. Not to mention he heard a door closing too. He turned around, wary. 

He saw a robot, a F.E.T.A unit, rather.

"Analysis complete. Updating world status..."

"What're you doing?" Schlatt asked, his voice a little uncertain and hoarse due to technically talking for the first time.

"You're finally awake. I was performing a much needed yearly scan of the outside environment and diagnostic of any potential signal waveforms coming through the area." Feta beeped once and her eyes flashed a lime green once, signifying she was done updating.

"Well, what did you find out?" Schlatt asked, intrigued. Science and mechanics had always amused him at a very young age, but now since the war, he wasn't always exposed to those two things as much as he would have liked to be.

"I was updated on the status of the surrounding environment. The area has suffered severe explosion damage and moderate acid erosion. However, I do not understand how the explosion damage happened."

Explosion damage? Duh. But acid erosion? Did it rain or something?

Schlatt thought. "Yeah. Bombs. War broke out between Uncle Ben and the Bridle about... uh..10 years ago? Something about Uncle Ben billions of dollars in debt to The Bridle. Uncle Ben didn't want none of that shit so he set loose those lab creatures on them. After the mission was a success the creatures were supposed to be captured and contained but... you could guess that didn't happen. Then....well... the outbreak happened..." Schlatt paused in the midst of pulling on a pinkish aloha button-up shirt, recalling fragments of what he remembered happened at the beginning of war. It was basically a civil war at first, but it eventually spread out to other countries aswell.

He remembered his mother grabbing his hand and forcing him to run. He remembered turning his head, looking back as the creatures killed hundreds of people in the span of a few seconds. He remembered the bomb hitting the center of Stradmouth, ending in a massive eruption killing thousands of creatures, along with thousands of innocient civilians. 

Yeah.. the civilians were never evacuated.

Schlatt's mother and himself managed to take shelter in an RV. And even though they were a couple miles away from the explosion, the RV fell on its side and the sound of the shockwave alone was unbearable. He remembered his mother sobbing in the corner with a bloody head, probably mourning the loss of her beloved husband. 

But that was all he could recall. Everything after that was a messy haze.

"Inform me on, 'The Bridle." Feta asked.

Schlatt raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You really don't know? You're the only F.E.T.A unit in this lab anyways. A top secret government lab, not to mention. I would've expected they would've given you some kind of information."

"You are not mistaken. I do possess top-secret government information. I was essentially Uncle Ben's personal diary. However, a considerable portion of these files, full of said information, had mysteriously corrupted after the war. I would only assume Uncle Ben had done it, just in case any nosy survivors came along. You, for example." Feta said somewhat condescendingly.

Schlatt, baffled, pressed his lips together in confusion. "I- um.. well.. the 'Bridle' were..uhm.. basically.. the constabulary of our country's border. They controlled whatever got in and out. Kinda like a cell membrane.. if you know anything about that anyways.." 

Schlatt finally decided the aloha shirt was probably his best bet, so he stuck with that.

"I am heavily trained in the means of science." Feta said with a monotonous voice.

Schlatt scoffed. "I guess I could've guessed that. You do work in a science lab, after all." Schlatt quickly side-looked at Wilbur. Seeing he was still asleep, he sighed. "What other things can you do, anyways?"

Schlatt knew F.E.T.A units were fully capable of teaching themselves things, which was scary, in a way, but nonetheless extremely useful. Some units were completely re-purposed and used for some of the lower paying and dangerous jobs. Jobs like working in a nuclear power plant, for example.

Feta stayed silent for a moment, probably trying to dig out any files she had related to the question. "I specialize in the following; Physics, chemistry, laundry, advanced engineering and mechanics, surgery, dishes and office management. I was also Uncle Ben's personal wingman at some point, but I don't consider it as a specialty."

Schlatt "hmmed" and fiddled with his fingers, occasionally looking over at Wil. He was surprised Uncle Ben had any trouble with his love/sex life. He was the president, after all. "Impressive. Do you uh.." Schlatt looked up at Feta, who was staring intensively at him. "Do you think you could tell me any government secrets?"

"I don't understand why I shouldn't. Uncle Ben abandoned me here without hesitation, so in return I won't hesitate to expose his secrets, that is, if you tell me about the Bridle."

Schlatt, a little frightened, obliged. He didn't know robots could have such an attitude.. "I already told you most of what I know.. but.. I know they're some kind of military. They were in control of the manufacture and bear of guns and ammo. I heard they knew about Uncle Ben making the creatures down here and basically blackmailed him, or they would reveal this whole lab operation to the public. He didn't do that, so then war and stuff sooo yeah.." 

"Thank you for your cooperation. I have restored two files that may be of use to you. Would you care to know about them?" 

Schlatt smiled slightly. "Sure."

"Short answer is, not the entire world has gone to war. There is, "The Other Side."

"Wait, what? Other side?" 

Feta's eyes (rather, souless orbs) permuted to a calm blue for a few seconds before returning to their original shade of green. "Yes. That is the name of the only intact, civilized, human colony in the world. The few survivors from The Bridle retreated and immediately contacted authorities located on Greenland and Antartica, seeing that those two were the only isolated lands that had not been affected by war. The Bridle's survivors explained the situation to them. Both the country and continent had closed their ports, airports and any possible mean of transportation. They both set up military on their borders, much like the Bridle, letting in only the people that would be of value to them. Greenland's border police were called "H.A.L" and Greenlands' "T.A.B". People were allowed in, but people were highly encouraged to go. People who decided to leave were never let back in. And don't ask about the names, the meaning behind them was never revealed."

Schlatt was in awe, realizing what this meant. "Are you saying Greenland and Antartica.. have- are normal..? Like no creatures.. or.. anything..? And why wouldn't they just let anybody in? Wouldn't they want people to come in?"

"Precisely. Although Greenland is the only place not affected by war as of today. Antartica was invaded in 2059. A marauder queen was spotted in a cave, making it longer safe in Antartica As you probably know, marauders reproduce asexually as well as sexually. I highly recommend going to Greenland instead. To answer your second question; no. A smaller population of people was obviously easier to control, and they knew that."

"How are you still recieving information? Since Uncle Ben isn't here to.. you know.."

"Occasionally a certain radio broadcast wafts through Stradmouth once a month. It just so happens it's a news channel for The Other Side. It's a fairly choppy one, it's surprising it even makes it this far into the wasteland. During my 'nap', the F.E.T.A machine itself picked up the broadcast and transmitted any information it acquired to one of my empty files."

"Uh huh.." Schlatt muttered.

Schlatt heard rustling next him once again, this time he was sure it was Wil. He turned to Wil, smiling.

He saw Wil propping himself up on his elbows, looking over to the preservation machine, panicking, then finally finding Schlatt by his side. Schlatt could see the overflow of joy and uncertainty in his face. 

Wilbur sat up quickly, stuttering quietly to himself, trying to decide whether Schlatt was real or not.

Schlatt, still sitting down, rolled his eyes and held his arms out, indicating he wanted a hug.

Wil smiled weakly, and scoffed through his nose. He fell into Schlatt's hug, knocking him into the wall. Schlatt grunted and chuckled, wrapping his arms around Wilbur.

Wil squeezed Schlatt's torso, still not sure he if he was actually there. He felt awfully real.. he was pretty sure he wouldn't be holding him if he wasn't there.

Wil rubbed the side of his thumb against Schlatt's spine, mumbling a "you're a fucking dumbass" into his shirt. 

"Well, yeah...I guess you could say that...I'm sorry.." Schlatt muttered.

"You bet your fucking ass you are. You know how much I went through just to- I- fuck, dude.."

"I feel like I don't want to know.." Schlatt said quietly.

"You don't.." 

It wasn't until a couple minutes later Schlatt realized Wil was silently crying into his shirt. 

"I-why are you crying? What happened?" Schlatt rushed his words, worrying if Wil was still mad at him for what he did. 

"I don't rea-really want to talk about it." Wil mumbled.

"Well..you're not going to feel any better if you don't tell anyone. Tell Feta, tell me. Hell, even write it down, 'cause it helps." 

"..."

"Come on dude. At least write about it in a journal or something. It's only gonna get worse."

Wil full on started sobbing, doing that wierd thing where you erratically inhale. Comfort talk always made him feel worse, usually ending up in an hour or two long sulk afterwards.

Wil waited out his weeping fit while Schlatt just held him, trying to be comforting once in a while by rubbing circles on his back, but eventually found it to be too awkward. When Schlatt was kid, a simple hug was the best source of comfort to him. A massage or hair fiddle was good too but he almost always prefered a nice, plain hug. He felt the care and love expressed through one was much more meaningful than trying too hard to be comforting. He wasn't sure about Wil, so he just implemented personal experience into the situation.

After about 30 minutes Schlatt and Wil had migrated to the floor, facing the ceiling and laying next to eachother. Wil was still holding Schlatt's waist, so it was kinda a spoon, but not a spoon. (Spork?)Wil had cried all the tears he could possibly cry, and was somewhat ready to talk. 

"You wanna talk about it?" Schlatt asked quietly, glancing at Wil. 

"Maybe" Wil said under his breath, his face nuzzled against Schlatt's upper arm. 

"Take your time."

Wil sputtered out vague descriptions of when he had to.. *ahem* extract the brain. Still, it was enough for Schlatt to get grossed out. Schlatt felt terrible. He couldn't imagine what that would have been like. How surreal it would be. He saw a head that was completely exposing the brain when he was little, and that was enough to give him nightmares months on end. But to do the dirty work yourself? Fuck that. 

"I'm so sorry.. I had no idea.. I always thought the robots did that part..." 

"I know. Only slept because of that wine.. just.. can you stay here a little bit longer?" 

"I wasn't going anywhere in the first place, but sure. When you're ready, let's get the fuck out of here, for real. I just found out Feta's experienced in mechanics and could probably fix up our plane in a couple hours. No more fucking around, let's just go. Sound good?" Schlatt said. 

(Lmao I wrote Schlart)

Wil nodded, almost starting to cry again but managing to hold it back. 

Feta's eyes flashed white rapidly, playing back a jingle that sounded suspiciously like the Kay Jewler's commercial jingle, except a few keys off-tune.

None of them noticed though, and fell asleep rather quickly.

\--------------------------------------------------------


	10. QP-E My Love

"*BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP*"

A series of annoying, periodic beeps screeched throughout the small room, immediately waking up one of the two sleepyheads, that one being Schlatt.

"What the f-" 

"*BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP*"

"Please shut the fuck u-"

"*BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP*"

"SHUT UP! Godamn.."

"Would you like to be informed about the aerodynamics of an elephant?" 

"Wh- w- no thanks? Did something happen? Why were you beeping so fucking loud?"

"I was previously used as a personal alarm clock for Uncle Ben. I suppose he never removed the time schedule.."

"Okay, please remove it.."

"Removing..."

Schlatt, already sitting up, rubbed his eyes and gazed down at Wil. A small ray of orange-white sunlight drifted over Wil's face, making him look... angelic. He wouldn't say that directly to him, of course, but he could always imagine he had such confidence. Schlatt didn't know why Wil wasn't already awake, because he could not stand sunlight on his face. It was hot, and annoying. Alot like Wil, actually.

"Wil, Wilbur..!" Schlatt whispered, smiling, his lips forming a soft parenthesis shape. (I didn't know what to call it oop-)

Wil shifted, burying his face into the side Schlatt's leg. Schlatt pulled his leg back slightly, cheeks heating up and adoring the delightfullness of this man next to him.

"Wake up, dumbass." Schlatt said in a quiet, raspy voice.

"Whhh..." Wil groaned. Though he immediately fell back down and went back to sleep.

"Morning.." Schlatt said, sighing. He repeated morning in his head. Was it really that early? When he first woke up he was pretty sure it was already early morning (around 4:00am), but again? "Uh.... Feta.. how long did we..sleep..?" He pointed at himself and Wilbur.

"Approximately 25 hours, 4 minutes and 20 seconds. And I can inform that you would have gotten nowhere trying to fix that laptop, you know absolutely nothing about electronic anatomy, as I've seen through a brain scan."

(Oh sht srry I forgot to add that Feta gave them sleeping medicine so that explains why they slept so long)

Schlatt was rudely metaphorically bitch slapped by Feta's sass. He raised his eyebrows, yawning in the process. "Ouch... okay... go easy on me." 

"Luckily for yourself, I'm programmed to do almost whatever I'm told. Toning down attitude now...."

Schlatt sighed, already fed up with Feta's interestingly human-like sass, despite only knowing her for merely a day. "Well, when you..scanned me, did you find out about the plane? J-9087?"

"Yes."

"Well.. since you know about engineering and stuff.. can you possibly maybe fix it? It has a couple dings and needs gas but other than that, I don't think it'll be too difficult to handle."

"Of course. Although, I can not retrieve the jet fuel, as I don't know where any could possibly be located. You might be able to make some in the chemical lab. Unfortunately I am strictly prohibited from entering inside, on Uncle Ben's terms."

"But.. he's kinda... dead. Well.. I don't know.. he could be in that "Other Side" place for all I know. If I lift the term, can you enter the chemical lab?"

"Please say the code word."

"He had a code word? Geez.. well.. I dunno then. How do you make jet fuel then?" Schlatt said, quickly adapting to the situation.

Feta proceeded to list the chemicals and other additives at the fucking speed of light, leaving Schlatt completely dumbfounded. "Three things to keep in mind; the fume jet fuel emits is extremely toxic to the human being, please be properly equipped with a hazmat suit and mask. These will be readily available upon entering the chemical lab. Secondly, a plane the size of the J-9087 uses 5 gallons (19L) of fuel per hour. The average capacity of fuel it can hold is 28 gallons (109L). This means the plane can fly for approximately 5.6 hours before the tank needs to be refilled. Flying to Greenland from Stradmouth takes 6 hours. Store 5 extra gallons of fuel in the plane's storage unit to avoid any complications during travel. Thirdly, when making jet fuel, the measurements need to be extremely precise otherwise risk of engine faliure is possible. Because of this I have provided a printed copy of the recipe for 33 gallons (124L) of fuel."

Feta neatly tore off the piece of thin paper containing the recipe from a slit on her back, handing it to Schlatt. "If you run into any problems, report to me, I can help with any complications outside of the chemical lab." Her tone was calm and stern, showing off her office management skills.

"Thank you.. you're a bitch sometimes but you're a fucking life saver. You're welcome to come us and stay with us wherever we end up in Greenland. We wouldn't be getting out of here without your help."

Feta's eyes flashed yellow. "If you ask, I shall."

"No, no. Do you want to? Like, I know you can make your own decisions. It's painfully obvious you're sentient."

Feta stayed silent for a moment before answering."...of course... I will accompany you. I'll be waiting at the landing site." Feta paused a few times, hesitating.

"Great!" Schlatt exclaimed. He averted his attention to Wil, shaking him vigorously. "Willllllllllllllllll"

"Whaghttttt.." Wil droned.

"Were you listening?"

"A little.. somethin' about a purple goblin, right?"

"Not even close." Schlatt rolled his eyes.

"Uhm... yellow goblins maybe?" 

"No, fucknut. Feta gave me this jet fuel recipe and she's coming with us to Greenland." Schlatt laughed quietly.

"Really? That's awesome!" Wil grinned and sat up, ruffling his hair. "Can I see the paper?" He asked.

Schlatt handed the paper to Wil. "Good, I was kinda worried you wouldn't like the idea of her coming along." He scratched the side of his head.

"Yeah, no that's cool. We can have like a house maid, but a badass military-level engineer slash laundry robot-ninja at the same time." He made jazz hands in the air, with a goofy smile on his face.

"Yeah, okay." Schlatt scoff-laughed waving off Wil like a sassy teenager.

Wil took a look at the paper, still smiling. He perked up his lips, looking relatively calm about the jumble of words and numbers on the page. "If we didn't have the instructions we might as well just hug a marauder, but y'know, since we do, I don't think we have to do that. It's just a bunch of measurements and stuff, no problemo." He handed the paper back to Schlatt, and he took a look himself, nodding.

"Feta said something about a chemical lab. I think there's also hazmat suits inside so we don't need to worry about that..."

"About that.. Feta where is the chemical lab?"

"Room 101. At the hallway entrance directly across the main lab, five stair levels down, three doors down and to your right. " Feta said.

"Hurry before I forget!" Schlatt ushered, grabbing Wil's hand and running out. Feta was left alone once again, and something was urging her to follow them. Nevertheless she proceeded to make her way towards the landing site. It wasn't because of her stalker tendencies, or her constant need to collect data, it was because she simply wanted to be with them. She felt lonely, oddly enough. 

Thing was, robots weren't supposed to feel that way. They weren't supposed to feel in general. It was dangerous for robots to have such an urge, and in the past has lead to termination of the unit, which explains why Feta was unsure whether to answer Schlatt's question about coming along with them, because she did want to go. Around the 2040's robots were hated on by the majority of Stradmouth.

Yes, there was robot racism. Robots were often beaten with metal pipes during the years 2030-2050.

Or robocism, as modern day called it. It's obviously less prominent in the year 2068, and they are basically idolized and considered sacred now, ironically enough. But when robots made their first major appearance working in human jobs, (a F.E.T.A prototype named C.I.T.E, used mainly for minimum wage jobs) it wasn't taken very well at first. There were numerous protests and robo murders, a few riots, and couple shootings. It wasn't glorious at all.

Little did Feta know people wouldn't beat her with pipes (which has happened numerous times in her career), but treat her as some kind of supreme being. 

Wil and Schlatt opened the door to the chemical lab, Wil entering first. They flashed their flashlights around, gawking at the sheer amount of chemicals stored on the walls. The walls were roughly the height of three giraffes stacked on top of eachother, the tanks containing the chemicals itselves were as big as an elephant alone. And the width of the wall? Well.. you couldn't see the end. It seemed to strech infinitely both directions. There was a tall ladder next to the front desk. Fortunately for them, they weren't going to need that ladder at all, because it was 2068 and advanced technology fell into their hands every corner they looked in. Instead of having to climb the ladder and collect the chemicals themselves, an automated chemical mixer was available. There was a monitor sized screen attached to a massive bucket-shaped container the size of a small house. 

"Hello?" Wil poked the screen.

No respose

Schaltt stepped fowards, trying to read the barely legible metal bracket above the screen. 

"Uhm.. Q... P... E..? " Schlatt read out loud. (Goddamnit I keep writing schlart)

The screen immediately lit up to a shade of mediocre green, and a face composed of text characters popped up. 

:D

Was the face before quickly switching to another face.

:)

Some words appeared on the screen.

"I am QP-E! How may I assist you?"   
•add chemicals  
•mix chemicals  
•activate atomic equalizer  
•dispense solution  
•settings

"What's an atomic equalizer..?" Wil muttered.

Words replaced words on the screen. "An atomic equalizer is used to ensure your chemical solution contains correct in the amount of atom io-" 

Wilbur skimmed over the last few paragraphs paragraphs, already having a basic idea of what it did. Science talk always bore him out. 

Schlatt read with him, except he read the whole thing. "Let's go put on those hazmat suits before we do anything, yeah?" Schlatt whispered playfully next to Wil's ear. Wil involuntarily shuddered, his breath hitching for a split second. He scratched at his neck.

"Y-yeah, yeah. Let's go." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The suits were hung up next to the entrance. Why they didn't grab them in the first place? We may never know. 

"Heh.. this one's pink." Wil snickered. "I guess they washed it with the reds, huh?" 

Schlatt held up his own, pearly white (well, not pearly. But it was pretty damn decent considering they were in the middle of a post-apocalyptic era.) Hazmat suit. "Too bad there's only three in here, I guess you gotta deal with it." 

(The third one was suspiciously littered with bite marks and holes resembling a human mouth.)

Wil "uh huh'ed" sarcastically at Schlatt, kinda vibing with the color though. He started taking off his clothes in order to put on the first layer- a protective, bright green, somewhat tight jumpsuit. 

Schlatt whispered a "holy shit", shielding his eyes, trying his hardest not to peek. "A-are you sure you shouldn't change somewhere more private?" Schlatt suggested, unbuttoning his shirt. 

"I'm staying here," Wil said, kicking off his pants, "so yeah." 

Schlatt muttered a "that's fair" before moving behind a large cylinder-shaped structure that was seperating Schlatt and Wil's view of eachother.

They changed in silence, the rustling of clothing being the only sound in the whole building. 

Schlatt finished first, despite Wil starting sooner.

He stepped out, waddling uncomfortably in his tight inner layer, but baggy outer layer. He wasn't sure if Wil was done suiting up, so he awkwardly stood, facing the corner of the wall.

"You can turn around, you know." Schlatt could hear the smirk in his voice. 

Almost immediately after turning his head, Schlatt snorted.

"It isn't that bad is it? I kinda rock this look, anyways." Wil put on a playfull pose, with his hands at either side of his helmet and one of his knees pointing inwards and one facing straight.

Schlatt just kinda died, turning around and leaning against the wall laughing himself to death.

Wil flipped the nonexistent hair outside his helmet, walking out with a stride on his hip.

Schlatt eventually picked himself up and made his way towards Wil, who was fiddling with QP-E. 

Schlatt stood behind him, watching.

"So, look. I think I can just do that... and this.. then there!" Wil insterted the list of chemical ingredients Feta gave them into a slot right below QP-E's screen.

A jumble of loud and obnoxious noises screeched throughout the building, some of them sounding rather worrying. As a few minutes progressed, the large container QP-E was attached to started to flow with a variety of chemicals. 

Schlatt scrunched up his nose, still being able to feel the burn of toxic fumes invading their way up his nostrils, despite the heavy protection he was wearing. It seemed Wil sensed that too, because he was doing the same thing. 

The tank filled up to a fair amount and started to whirl around for a couple minutes. It abruptly stopped when it was done mixing, causing the liquid to launch up the walls of the tank and audibly splash back down.

:')

"Process complete.  
•activate atomic equalizer  
•dispense solution

There were only two options left. Schlatt decided to be safe, and activated the equalizer. For a few moments there was a subtle pulse of energy he felt, and then it was done.

"Process complete. Dispense solution now?"  
•yes  
•no  
•settings

"Schlatt, do we have any gas canisters around here?" Wil said, his face a slight shade of red due to the heat building up inside his suit. 

"I'm not sure.. I'll go look." Schlatt departed from Wil and went around rummaging through the piles of equipment scattered around the floor. As far as he knew, they needed at least 7 five-gallon canisters or 33 one-gallon canisters... or a combination of the two. This wasn't going to be fun..

Schlatt scavenged out 4 of the five-galloners and 13 of the one-galloners. He made sure his math was correct, he didn't want to suddenly fall out of the sky because he forgot one gas canister.

He carried as much as he could over to Wil, only needing to make 1 trip because he managed to kick the rest over with his feet (gently, of course).

"Mama didn't raise no two-trip bitch." He grunted to himself.

Wil was about to apologize for not helping him, but quickly realized there was no need to. He raised his eyebrows, impressed.

Schlatt dragged over an old chair so that he could set a gas canister on it. Once he did that, he adjusted the nozzle over the gas can, and nodded to Wil to signify he could start the machine.

There was a horrific, loud CREAAAAKKKK, but soon enough the jet fuel started to dispense from the nozzle. Luckily, the machine (or QP-E) knew when to stop dispensing, and waited for the next gas can to present itself.

This continued for a little less than an hour. When they were done, they took a break in the room nextdoor (for overheating purposes).

Schlatt slumped against the wall, his head leaning back and a smile on his face. "I just.. I can't believe we're finally getting out of here. I can't believe I'm getting out of here. After all the shit I had to walk through... the years spent in this hellhole. You too, Wilbur." He chuckled to himself, but knew not to get too hopeful, but just enough. 

"Yeah.." was all Wil could say. He was in so much awe that he was finally getting out after.. what? Ten or thirteen years? And three of those years completely alone? It was kind of overwhelming, actually. "You ready?" 

Schlatt grinned. "Hell yeah."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they were preparing to move the cans, Schlatt couldn't help but notice QP-E's screen was flashing white. Out of curiosity and concern, he inspected the screen, leaving Wil to do the packing.

:P

Was the face that appeared on the screen.

"Yes, yes. Thank you for coming over and I apologize, but I coudn't help but overhear your conversation on how you were planning to leave. Not that I want to come- I'm just- I-....."

The screen blanked for a second before it popped up again. 

:I

"I apologize. Who am I fooling..? I'm just asking.. can I possibly- would you let me come with you? I may seem desperate but that's because I am. I've been stuck here for atleast a decade, and when you two walked in I had to try my best to avoid exploding with glee, therefore ruining your plans. I know not of the presence of robocism today, and I know I'm taking a considerble risk here, but if you take me with you I'll serve you with my life. I'll even let you perform a nerve omen. I beg, and I am without fault when I say beg, I beg you to take me with you." 

Schlatt read over the text, suprised when QP-E mentioned the nerve omen.

A nerve omen is when a robot programs itself to automatically cut off their vital nerves (or tubes, if you will) if they cause direct or indirect harm to the person who activated the omen and anyone who they wish to be a part of the omen (In this case, Wilbur and Feta), therefore ending in their suicide. The omen is activated by a push of a button on the unit's back, protected by a plastic case and a four-digit code only the robot itself knows. 

"Of course, only if you're willing to commit to the omen. Lucky for you, robocism has little to no prescence today. Where's your unit?" Schlatt said.

:'D

"Oh, by the gods. Thank you so much. To your left, if you walk a couple of steps fowards you should be able to see it. The bright, glowing blue chamber. You can't miss it. The code is 5150 once you get me out."

As expected, the chamber revealed itself with the robot that kind of resembled a F.E.T.A unit (except it was male). The robot was painted plain white, unlike Feta who was lead gray. It was easily a 6'0 foot (182cm) robot, tall and intimidating. It looked as if it was brand new. Instead of orbs for eyes, like Feta, a rectangular screen that displayed an equalizer replaced where his eyes were supposed to be.

Schlatt pushed the button that released the unit, and stepped on an area on its foot to cause it to freeze and stand stil for about a minute. Schlatt efficiently dialed in the code QP-E gave him and activated the omen. 

Now, QP-E was forbidden from harming himself, Wilbur, and Feta. Forever. If he tried, he would die.

QP-E came to life, expressing joy through a cheerful bounce in his posture. He was certainly more expressive than Feta.

"This.. is.. it's so unreal! So many years cooped up in that box.. I said I would protect you with my life, and I will. How may I serve you, sir?" He half bowed, the equalizer obove the nonexistent ridge of his "nose" spiking up every time he spoke. His voice was undeniably a man's.

"N-no need to be so formal!" Schlatt laughed. "Just call me Schlatt. Just protect me and my f-acquaintance whenever he or I say so, I guess. Speaking of, I want you to meet my 'acquaintance." Schlatt led him over to a mildly concerned Wil.

"Can we trust.. uh.. QP-E I'm assuming?" Wil muttered.

"Yeah. I already activated his nerve omen. He can't hurt you, me, or Feta."

Wil seemed to relax a little bit, his face more at ease. "Alright. Can he help us with these canisters? Because as you said, mama didn't raise no two-trip bitch. We're gonna make this in one trip." Schlatt looked up at QP-E, who was already picking up the heaviest gas cans. In a pleasant suprise, both Schlatt and Wil smiled.

"Can I ask who this "Feta" you're talking about is..? If I may, of course." 

"Oh, she's another sentient robot like you. She's coming with us too." Wil said.

You had to admit, two robot bodyguards was kinda cool.

"A "she" you say? I wouldn't mind meeting this "Feta", you speak of..." QP-E said, intruiged. You could hear the delight in his voice.

Schlatt and Wil laughed, seeing their two robots might develop in interest in eachother. 

Interestingly, Feta is technically owned by Wil because of how F.E.T.A units were programmed, which was if a unit was unused for 5 years or more, whoever activated it first after those five years was automatically set to be the unit's "owner." And QP-E is technically Schlatt's because of the same reason, plus the nerve omen. 

"Alright, QP you grab those four 5-gallon cans, Schlatt grab those 6 cans I'll grab the other 7." 

The nickname made it sound like Wil was calling QP-E a cutie. QT would be more fitting.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry 7?" Schlatt asked, picking up the jugs and sliding the handles down his arms. 

"I got the longer arms, so no." Wilbur said, doing the same as Schlatt.

"Alright." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After about an hour, they managed to clamber out of the lab, climbing up the ladder without looking back. Tough shit happened in there, and both of them were glad to leave it behind.

They were glad to leave everything behind, and glad to bring a few companions along the way. 

There was a series of hours walking and taking breaks. For Wil and Schlatt, anyways. Schlatt gave QP-E permission to head on up ahead so he could meet Feta, despite the numerous, obviously gleeful retorts, that "they must be protected." 

Upon arriving to their destination, they found a very talkative QP-E and a slightly irritated Feta. 

"You guys getting along?" Schlatt snickered, climbing inside the J-9087 and starting to pour the liquid inside the fuel tank, saving the spare 5-gallon tank somewhere in the back of the plane. He checked all of the plane's buttons for any problems.

"She's smart! Though she isn't exactly friendly..." QP-E said, looking at Schlatt and back at Feta. "Or talkative.."

"Yeah, you're gonna deal with alot of that." Wil said. "She's also a smartass. Careful." 

"I just said that..! Didn't I?" QP-E said, confused.

Not wanting to interfere with his innocience, he apologized. "Yeah, sorry. I forgot." 

"We're ready to go!" Schlatt called from inside the plane, poking his head out. "You finished repairing the plane, right Fetass?" 

"Yes. In addition, I also enhanced the overall engine output and weight capacity, since the original plane itself could only hold about 1,000lb (453kg), assuming you and your parter along with QP-E and I are over 200lb (90kg), I upgraded that initial capacity to 1500lb (680kg). These enhancements should not interfere with the consumption of fuel, as I asked you to produce more than needed."

QP-E stared at Feta admirably. "Fetass? Hilarious." He commented. "Kinda mean though.."

"I'm half hating you for fooling us into making extra, and I'm half grateful. Let's get get the fuck out of here, shall we?" Wil grinned, allowing them all in before himself, with Feta in the pilot's seat and QP next to her, and with Wil and Schlatt in the back.

It was around dusk, and the sun perked up slightly from below the horizon, illuminating what little it could. The friendly yellows and warm oranges swirled and blended comfortably in with the loyal purples, firey reds, and musky blues of the rest of the sky like a Van Gogh painting. The remaining rays of sunlight bestowed itself upon the hood of the J-9087, reflecting off silver lining like a flashlight on aluminum. It was time, and it was absolutely the right one.

Feta switched on the radio broadcast from "The Other Side" from her mobile stomach radio, probably using it to navigate. 

At the moment, though it was barely audible, "Everybody Loves Somebody" by Dean Martin was playing. The two boys in the back, fell asleep on eachother while Feta started up the plane. The J-9087 sputtered, but quickly evolved into a smooth, but firm purr. The plane vibrated pleasantly, ready to take off.

(I highly recommend listening to that song during this part btw. Just sayin', if you wanna catch some vibes)

The initial lift off the ground was a slight shock, since Wil nor Schlatt had ever flown in their life before. The feeling quickly adjusted to them, though. Every now and then Schlatt would gaze outside the window and tell himself to draw the scenery around him, but he didn't want to wake Wil, who was currently slumbering on him. It was like having a cat on his lap.

Now, the barely-visible sun seemed to be nearing them, but seemed to be growing farther away at the same time. It was a mind fuck...kinda..

Schlatt looked down at Wilbur, smiling and thinking to himself- "what did I do to deserve such a saint?" 

The man had taken him under his wing comprised of misfortune and luck, taken care of his wounds like a mother lion to her cub, no matter whether it be mentally or physically, brought out the better good in himself with little to no effort, and wrenched him from the desert of death and beyond.

And where did he come from? From an abandoned store in the middle of nowhere, he said to himself. It didn't seem that way, though. If someone had told him Wil was a literal godsend he would have believed it without question. 

Schlatt found himself fiddling with the brown locks, wondering how one could maintain such pristine hair considering the circumstances of today. His gaze wandered to Wil's eyes where a thick, plethora of eyelashes lay along the brim of his eyelid. Then to his cheekbone, slightly flushed and freckled, just like Schlatt's cheeks at the moment. 

Wait what? Schlatt moved his cold fingertips to the tops of his own cheekbones, feeling the heat radiating off of them. 

...

Was he caught in this man's mojo of charm? Was he playing the Virgil to his Dante? He couldn't help but think he was. 

He glanced back down at Wil, then to the patch of hair where he toyed with his locks. His cheeks heated up progressively. He was, wasn't he?

Was he.. maybe.. possibly.. feasibly.. persay in the slightest chance.. in love?

"Everybody loves somebody sometime.." played softly from Feta's radio, noticeably clearer than before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	11. Something New Under The Sun

The landing was rough and unexpected, and they weren't at their designated destination yet either. Wil woke up sluggishly and confused. They hadn't crashed, so why'd they stop? He assumed after a moment of thinking that they were stopping to re-fuel the tank. (which was correct)

Feta stepped out of the plane carefully, and QP-E crawled into the backseats. 

QP activated a flashlight that seemed to be coming from under his equalizer eyes, but before doing so he looked over to where Schlatt and Wil were. Wil was awake, but didn't pay any attention to QP-E. Schlatt was asleep. 

"You two are so delightfully endearing!" QP whispered excitedly. He clapped his hands together gently and quickly, making a clak clak sound. He grabbed the remaining gas can in the very back of the plane, giggling to himself.

Wil brought his hand up to his face, covering it and grinning sheepishly. 

Feta and QP-E communicated without a sound. This wasn't suprising, considering both were robots and could probably talk to eachother in a wide variety of peculiar ways. QP handed Feta the fuel while she poured the brown-ish liquid into the tank. 

Schlatt woke up, rubbed his eyes and gazed out the window, adjusting his eyes to the low light setting. He set his elbow on the narrow brim that was the windowsill, and his palm on his cheek. The lanscape was fairly flat, except for a few hills here and there. The place was very tropical, there were several palm trees and stunning flower clusters spread about. Schlatt's eyes widened slightly, he didn't even know those things existed anymore..

The warm-pink aloha shirt he was wearing kind of made sense now.

The moonlight reflected off the tops of the curved palm leaves, their sturdy frame swaying in the breeze. Up, right, down, left, up. Schlatt observed the rythym the leaves were dancing to, he was oddly intruiged.

He'd never seen a place full of life like this before. Green leaves, colorful petals... it was so vibrant, even though the colors were overlapped by a shade of dusky blue due to the night's course. He couldn't imagine what it would be like in the sun.

Blinding, he imagined. 

It seemed like they were on a small island. A very small island. He could see the sea just from where he was sitting, just a sliver of it, though.

Schlatt had to give it up to Feta, that was one hell of a landing job.

Wil sat up groggily, slapping himself on the cheek gently. Schlatt couldn't help but smile.

"Mornin-err.. night..morning...? Nightning..?" Schlatt tried to greet Wil with a classic 'good morning', but failed miserably since it was still very early in the night. Like 11:00pm. 

"Nightning to you aswell.." Wil yawned, smirking and stretching his legs out over the seat in front of him. "Where are we..?" The scenery outside caught his eye, just like it did to Schlatt. He scooted over even closer (if that was possible) and set his fingertips on the condensing glass. "I guess what Feta said is true... not all of the world has gone to war.." he whispered in amazement.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Schlatt murmured. "I wonder why this place isn't... destroyed yet.." 

"I don't know. Maybe those Greenland people wanted to reserve this place too. I could understand why'd they want to too.." 

Schlatt "hmmed" and tried to look for Feta and QP-E. He spotted them next to a palm tree that was noticeably larger than the rest. 

Why weren't they starting the plane yet?

The two of them agreed on investigating. They stumbled out, still a bit clumsy due to their drowsiness. The coastline was right behind them, but none of them noticed due to the darkness.

"Hey, uh, why aren-"

"There is no suitable or apparent runway we can use to aviate the J-9087 again. We'll have to build our own." Feta said.

"What? How? Where?" Schlatt replied.

"We will construct the runway across the across the longitude of the island. Out of the surrounding resources and using the magic that is science, we will construct this runway." Feta raised her claw-like hand and ejected a tube from her "palm." QP-E handed her two pieces of bark that were just lying around. She took one piece, and held it up. A molten-looking substance started oozing out of the tube. 

"Wh-what's happening?" Wil whispered to Schlatt.

"Fuck, If I know.." he replied. 

The ooze looked like lava almost, except a bit lighter in color. There was a fair amount of smoke emitting from Feta's hand tube. Once she was done applying the substance, she took the other piece of bark and stuck the two together, using the lava looking stuff as an adhesive. She then held the bark underneath her elbow. A liquid, that looked alot like the substance from the tube, sprayed from said elbow, coating the pieces of bark in a tint of dark grey.

After a few moments she held the contraption she made upwards, turning her head and staring at Wil and Schlatt intently.

"Observe." She said.

QP-E stepped fowards, and held up his hand. A flurry of hotter-than-usual flames came soon after, engulfing Feta's hand and the pieces of bark.

After about 10 seconds of flamethrowing passed, QP pulled out a mini chainsaw. Like. Out of his back. 

Crazy.

He set the chainsaw on the bark, letting it run for another 10 seconds. The wood looked completely untouched. Truly remarkable.

"The diverse material you saw me apply to the bark twice, both as a half solid and liquid form, is a pre-war medium originating from the Uncle Ben Research Facility, or UB-RF. Its creation was made soley for the purpose of serving as an indestructible adhesive for complex structures and long-term pipe lines. It's derived from mainly oxygen and sulfur dioxide, and of course mixed with many more other chemical additives that can be found just on this island. Unfortunately the substance was never named, as it was created just before the war." Feta explained.

"So.. you're using this.. charcoal looking stuff to built a runway?" Schlatt said.

"Precisely. Your observation skills are outstanding." Feta mocked Schlatt.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Thanks. How long do you think this whole.. thing will take?" 

"About 3 hours, 6 minutes and 9 seconds."

Both Wil and Schlatt were half glad and half dissapointed. This meant they could explore the island, but this also meant they weren't.. free from whatever may lurk here from the war. 

They weren't free from the war in general. 

Yet.

Schlatt slung his backpack over his shoulder and unclipped his flashlight, but was greeted with nothing but darkness when he pressed the little orange button on the bottom. 

Wil's flashlight was nowhere to be found, unfortunately. "That sucks.." He muttered. "I think I left mine back at the lab.."

"Well, shit." Schlatt replied, slipping the dead flashlight in his backpack's side pocket.

QP-E almost immediately ran over upon overhearing about their problem. You could sense his excitement despite not being able to physically see his facial expression. "I have an idea! Do you guys have any spare cloth..? Anyone..?" 

Schlatt and Wil gave a glace at eachother, before shaking their heads at QP's question.

"Well- that's- it's fine. It's only for decoration anyways... I think.." QP-E picked up a fairly broad stick. He coated the top with a liqid that looked like gasoline, but probably wasn't, and lit the top on fire with his mini-flamethrower hand. 

QP held the flame close to his face, poking his finger through it. "There. It's a special kind of fire. It won't burn out.. because.. technology.. and it's white! As you can see. It's totally safe too. Look!" He picked a piece of tall grass, and held it in the fire for a couple of seconds. When he took it out, it looked unmarked. "It's also supposedly safe if you put it on your skin, but I wouldn't risk it, since it hasn't actually been tested on a human before. So go and explore! I would say don't burn down the place.. but.. y'know.. you can't." QP giggled to himself. 

Schlatt tipped his head to the side, mesmerized by the superfluity of white flames. "Thanks..!" he exclaimed. He looked at the flame, then at QP-E. "And I've been meaning to ask, what kind of robot are you anyways? You have a flamethrower with a variety of different types of flames, a fucking chainsaw.. I would guess you were a security unit of some kind, but I'd rather not make assumptions." 

QP lowered the torch, turning his head towards the two. The flame's light reflected off his shiny white paintjob."Well.. uh.. I think was a security bot. I'm not sure. I've spent most of my time in that monitor I just.. I don't know anymore. When I was first manufactured I only spent a week or so in this current body, and then the lab people put me in that computer screen.." 

Schlatt frowned. "Sorry. I shouldn't have asked." 

QP-E lifted his head. "No! It's okay. I already talked about it with Feta so.. it's nothing new." 

... 

Wil stepped up next to Schlatt after noticing the few seconds of silence. "Well, thank you. We'll see you.. in a bit." Wil smiled, taking the torch from QP's hands.

"Seeya!" He replied, skipping off to Feta again.

Wil smiled, admiring how blissfully ignorant QP-E was to the crumbling world around him. Wil understood why he was, though. The bot had never been exposed to anything of the outside world other than that chemical lab.

The torch's light was as bright as your average flashlight, nothing too crazy. It put off a moderate heat, but it wasn't hot enough to burn you. The heat it emmitted was like the warmth of a winter sunbathe; pleasant.

The side of the island they started off on was fairly flat. There was three or four trees, a flat plain of grass and scattered bushels. As they ventured further into the middle of the island, the vegitation grew thicker and the land more diverse. Not as thick as to feel threatening and clausterphobic, but enclosed and safe. The island had obviously been ventured before, because there was several hand-made trinkets hanging on braches and knife carvings into trees. 

They stopped numerous times during their trek, marveling and pointing at the tiny insects they encountered. After running past broad leaves and jumping overt logs they eventually made it to the opposite coastline of the island, not that it even took that much effort, anyways. The coast was as just as average as any other coastline in the world, but to Wil and Schlatt it was like being on an alien planet. The only scenery they've ever seen was wasteland and.. slightly drier wasteland. This.. this was next fucking level shit.

The sea looked almost black, but the moon's shine made it clear it was a leaden blue. The waves shifted and changed position constantly, creating this harmony of synchronized and unsynchronized ribbons of water.

It was fascinating. This side of the island was noticably brighter than the other, and everything was illuminated from the moonlight. 

There was even a little hut hiding in a patch of palm trees. That was their next destination, but not before exploring the coast. 

They didn't take off their shoes or anything like a normal person going to the beach, because.. well.. they didn't know what a beach was. Instead they got their shoes and socks all sandy and wet. 

If the act was witnessed, it would've been considered a crime against common sense, but since they were alone.. they didn't get their asses beat. Not physically, anyways.

"Oh my fuck what the shit is that?!" Wil practically screamed. He jumped back, frantically pointing at the odd creature in front of him. "Is that a mini marauder? Just when I thought we left those things behind!"

The red crab waddled around in the wet sand, not paying any mind to the two.

"Holy.. shit.. uh.. I don't.. fucking.. know..?" Schlatt droned, keeping his eyes on the crab they thought was some kind of miniature marauder. "I don't think it's a marauder.. .Wilbur?" When Schlatt looked over to where Wil was supposed to be, he wasn't there. 

Wil didn't go far, though. He was just running as fast as he could towards the little hut they spotted earlier.

Schlatt ran too, he didn't know what the fuck that thing was. It was like if you saw a tarantula, except it was the size of a monitor. Or if that isn't scary enough, then it would be like witnessing your thoughts, worries and problems that derive from the middle of the night when you're trying to sleep, contorted into a physical blob-like form, the size of a monitor, writhing and lolling around on the floor like an extremely dextrous slug you just sprinkled with salt.

Conviniently, the hut included a torch sheath on the wall so they didn't have to hold it the whole time they were in there.

The hut also had a few cute little chairs and a tiny table, all were made with sticks and straw. It was amazing what humans could make with the simplest of resources. 

They sat down on the chairs, both of them picking the ones closest to eachother.

Just as they settled, Schlatt got an excited look on his face, and ran out, shouting for Wil to stay there.

Wil cocked his head and shrugged, taking in his surroundings. The hut was comepletely made of straw. It reminded him of an old childhood story. He couldn't quite put his finger on the name, though. The three little pigeons... or something like that.

He sighed, still processing what has happened in the past week. 

A week.

First he gets kidnapped, then his beloved Milo dies, then he nearly dies by gunshot and goes deaf in one ear, then Schlatt dies and he has to break his skull open so some odd government robot can grow him back in a tube. 

Things turned out.. okay. Anything was better where Schlatt was alive, really. Preferably his dog too, but that didn't happen. 

And already after a week he could already say he felt attracted to him. Or maybe even in love. It wasn't a conscious decision. It wasn't like he was like oh I'm just gonna fall in love with this person now, it just happened without a choice. 

and he hated it.

but he loved it..

Love is a feeling you can't quite describe, but you can at the same time. A pleasant burn in the pit of your stomach and an intense rush of euphoria through your jawline and hands. A feeling of lightheadedness and heavyheadedness, your attention span narrowed to that one particular person. It's so.. gratifying, yet infuriating at the same time.

Some may call it a chemical reaction or a devil's curse, but once you were caught in that web of spending countless nights soley thinking of that one guy or girl those tables turn instantly.

And Wil was a defenseless, puny fly that flew straight (or gay) into that web of love. 

"Look at this! I read about these in a pre-war book about tropical places." Schlatt held up two coconuts. His face looked flushed and his hair was noticeably a disheveled mess even though it was fairly short... he probably had to run 4 laps around the whole island just to get them.

(I just wrote cocknuts and I want to die)

Wil could care less about Schlatt's messy appearance. He thought he looked hotte-ahem...better that way.

"Oh..! Wow! Uh.. what is it..?" Wil asked in awe.

"A coconut. It has juice inside.. I think.." 

"It's not poisonous is it?" 

"Wh- idiot, no! I just know it's a coconut, and coconuts are not poisonous!" Schlatt retorted.

"Alright, you have me convinced. Gimme." Wil held his hand out, and Schlatt plopped it in his hand. He had a little suprised look on his face and his arm sunk a little due to the weight. "So.. how do we.. drink it..? I'm assuming?"

"We have to cut the top open with a knife or something. Or smash it with a rock. Or just cut a little hole in it."

"I think I'm going with that third option." Wil flicked out his pocketknife and started to carve a straw sized hole in one of the coconut eyes. Schlatt decided to do the same.

It wasn't the easiest thing to do; to carve a hole into a coconut, but it wasn't like there was anything better to do.

It took about an hour of repetitive carving and stabbing to get a hole in place, and in the meanwhile the two chatted.

"You know, after all what's happened I don't think I ever heard your side of the story." Schlatt said, grunting at the end because he ran out of breath from stabbing his coconut.

"..I'm really very boring. You'd get a better story out of a Stradmouth junkie." Wil retaliated.

Schlatt chuckled. "I'm asking because I'm interested, speak, mortal."

"Oh, alright.." Wil said, laughing. "Well.. I grew up in the countryside, I lived with my mother and father. I was an only child.. uh.. I picked up guitar at a young age, my father ran it over with his tractor and I never got over it... uhm.. I lived in England at the time so war hadn't happened until I was 16. I worked at a bar and it was bring your parents to work day, so I brang them there and hung out with them and my friend Daniel. Then that day a war riot came right through the middle of town, and someone shot the liquor barrels in the warehouse at the back of the bar. A huge fire broke out. My father and I were the only ones who survived along with a couple of other locals we weren't too familiar with. We took a boat the U.S. and ended up here.. so..yeah.." 

"I'm going to hate myself for asking this but where is he now?" 

"Died. Marauder."

"Great, now I hate myself." 

"No no, it's okay. It was a long time ago anyways." Wil laughed. "Ooh! I got it!" He had finally made the hole into the coconut. He shook it and peeked inside. "...why's it white inside..?"

"It's the "flesh" of the coconut I think. It's not real flesh but.. uh.. you know what I'm saying.." Schlatt said.

"Hahahah, nah, I don't. Is it like.. plant.. meat?" 

"Exactly!" Schlatt exclaimed, finally making a full puncture through the coconut. "Also can I ask why the fuck you and your dad came to America? The war originated here, so why'd you want to come?"

"He thought it would be better over here, since war was just starting over in England. I get where you're coming from, though." 

"Not totally understandable, but I guess it was just the right ideal but the wrong idea." 

Wil kept silent, pressing his lips to the coconut. Not knowing what to expect, he tipped it back cautiously, though as soon as the familiar-tasting liquid touched his tounge, his eyes widened in recognition."Hey, I've had this before! It was in a can though, and it tasted slightly.. moldier." 

"Maybe because it was a decade old?"

Wil smiled. "Probably."

The two of them talked for a while, their conversations seemingly flawless. It was so natural and smooth, the two of them clicked like a key and lock. It was wierd since their personalities were fundamentally the opposite, but you know what they say. "Opposites fuck."

Or something like that.

They finished up their tropical beverages and were going to try to get to the fleshy part of the coconut, but something else caught Wil's eye. 

"Is that a bigass hole in the ground?" Wil said.

"Yep." Schlatt replied. "Wanna go inside it?" 

"N- actually.. yeah. Sure. Fuck it." Wil sat up, stretching his arms a little and started to walk towards the hole they somehow missed when they were exploring. 

"Well, that is indeed, a bigass hole." Schlatt said, standing next to Wil.

"It looks like a cave." 

"No shit Wibur, actually? Never noticed. I might aswell be fucking blind because I NEVER K-" 

"Oh, shut up Mr. Smart Aleck, I get it." Wil snorted.

The cave was in no need of an additional light source, but they still brang the torch just incase. Green glowing mushrooms and strips of moss filled every wall and corner. Every now and then there was even a large purple or blue crystal they had to climb over.

Although upon the first few minutes of entering the cave, Schlatt stepped on a camouflaged floor switch (a pressure plate). 

"Did you hear that clicking soun- holy fuck- Schlatt duck down!" Wil realized they had just walked into a trap. It wasn't insanely genius or complex, but there was definitely a huge danger factor. A machete strapped to a pole came swinging downwards towards Schlatt. He managed to get out of the way, but not without getting a cut on his face.

"Okay, question." Schlatt said, cringing at the sting when he touched his wound. "Why the fuck would someone set this up?" 

Wil caught the pole before it could swing back again. He didn't even need to tug hard to get the whole contraption to fall down. "Beats me. Some people are.. really stupid." He peeled the tape holding the machete and the pole together, wielding his new weapon and spinning it around a couple times, but immediately dropped it when he saw Schlatt's face. "Oh Jesus."

The knife had made a large cut on Schlatt's cheek, ranging from the corner of his eye all the way back to the tip of his ear. And it was bleeding alot. No, that was an understatement. It was bleeding profusely. Schlatt kind of looked like a horror movie cover with all the blood streaming down his cheek. 

"Are you okay? Do you feel the skin around the cut tightening? Because if you do, this knife was poison tipped." Wil asked worriedly. Not seeing any spare cloth in proximity, he slipped off his windbreaker. "Keep it on the cut." He said, a little hesitant, because he knew he was never going to get those blood stains off his jacket.

"No. I think it was just a normal machete." Schlatt said, pressing his lips together after speaking to avoid getting blood in his mouth.

Wil knew Schlatt carried medical supplies in his backpack, so that was the first place he looked. Wil also had bandages and stuff in his own backpack, but that was more for.. if you got your leg amputated.

Promptly after moving Schlatt's hand out of the way of the cut he remembered the time Schlatt had taken care of his ear wound after Carson had shot him. He smiled slightly, glad to return the favor to Schlatt. 

He replicated the same techniques Schlatt used. He used a wipe, hydrogen peroxide and neosporin, just like Schlatt did, and it was suprisingly effective. Ideally, stitches would be the appropiate operation to do instead of smacking a bandage on the cut, but neither of them had the materials do that.

But they did have butterfly bandages. 

Butterfly bandages are.. alternative stitches you could say. They are made to close up a small or moderate cut without the use of real stitches. 

Wil knew this because when he was a youngin, he used to ride his motorcycle around his countryside neighborhood. His dad always told him, "Don't ride out by the corrales, the sand is too soft." And of course as a rebellious 11-year old, he rode by the corrales.

Not suprisingly, he hit a patch of soft sand and tipped over. His chin hit the handlebars when he fell, and he split his chin open enough that the bone was visible. It didn't really hurt because of the initial shock. He didn't even notice until he walked his bike back to the house. His dad was on the driveway, working on some kind of welding project, when Wil walked up his dad went wide-eyed and dropped his wrench and torch. He rushed him inside and he cleaned Wil up, sat him down and applied butterfly bandages over the wound since they couldn't afford stitches. In no less than a few weeks the injury healed and a neat scar formed just under his chin. 

Although, he never rode a motorcycle after that.

(True story)

The cut was reasonably thin in diameter, nor did it have ragged edges. 

So butterfly bandages it was, then.

After (trying) to clean up the blood he lined up the two halfs of skin where it got seperated, then applied the butterfly bandage to close it up. Wil did this to the entirety of the cut, using the peroxide and neosporin before covering the whole thing with a few bandages. Wil tried his hardest not to look directly into Schlatt's eyes. 

But it was impossibly hard to do..

When he looked in Schlatt's umber brown eyes he found himself staring, but he just couldn't help it. His eyes were like a miniature space, deep and dark, infinite and flecked with stars.

Wil carefully brushed his thumb against Schlatt's cheekbone subconsciously. 

It even seemed like his eyes were getting closer, like a void, drawing him in gradually and immersively.

Schlatt didn't retaliate, in fact, he leaned in. Inches away from Wil's face, he glanced down towards Wil's lips. Somewhat chapped, but incredibly kissable. Schlatt brought his hand up, ghosting over Wil's hips and hovering over the side of his face.

The room (or cave) felt like it was spinning. Schlatt's hearbeat was so prominent Wil could feel it through his fingertips.

Or was that his own heartbeat?

Wil was drawed in closer, captivated and enticed. The moment was cherished and the two were nose to nose, about to have that sweet moment of victory...

And then..

"Now, kiss!" Was heard from somewhere in the cave.

QP-E was practically quaking in the corner, tapping two fingers together to symbolize two people kissing.

Wil immediately jumped back, hitting his head on the wall. Schlatt flinched and hit his own head.

After QP-E realized what he'd done, he collapsed on to the floor on his hands and knees, exhaling audibly and dramatically. "NOOOO! Did I ruin the moment?! I'm so sorry! OH MY GOD I RUINED IT DISEMBOWEL ME PLEASE THANKS." He held his head between his arms, sobbing.

Both Schlatt and Wil were immensely embarrassed, not sure what to do.

"It's-" Schlatt started to say, but was inturrupted by an anguished QP-E. 

"I was just coming to tell you guys we were ready to leave I swear! I'm not a creep! I shoulda just let you guys do your thing I'm sorry!" QP-E screeched quietly to himself and ran out of the cave.

The two of them got up slowly, avoiding looking eachother in the eye. They walked alongside eachother awkwardly for the rest of the way to the plane.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	12. I Could Make You Care

\------

"Attention displaced person or persons - please land on the upcoming runway. Belongings will be examined and returned to you shortly after check-in." 

A voice boomed from from an unidentifiable place. It was muffled, but enough to wake the two men in slumbering in the backseats.

Schlart (fuck my life I'm not even going to fix that) let out a prolonged exhale, fazing back into reality. He was groggy and bored, until he looked out the window. He rubbed one eye harshly with his knuckle, itching an itch that seemed to never go away.

So, this was it? 

It looked like millions of tiny fireflies, neon polka-dots awning a small portion of a massive landscape, flurried streaks of blurred light. It made him feel small, like a mere spec on the face of the earth. 

"Wilbur.. hey.." Schlatt murmured. He shook his shoulder gently. "We're here." Almost immediately he pulled away his hand, the events of the last couple hours hitting him like a sudden global pandemic. His breath hitched and he turned his head in embarrassment. 

Wil "hmmed" and ignored him.

Ouch

"No, like, look outside. There's lights.. and stuff. A city." Schlatt mumbled, scratching at his own head awkwardly.

Wil finally obliged and caught a look of the scenery on the other side of the glass. His eyes widened in mesmerization. He hadn't seen anything like this, not even when he was little, unlike Schlatt who had grown up in a city.

The J-9087 glided onto the runway, making for a seamless landing. At first they didn't even know they landed, until they saw the runway rushing past below them. Feta drove the plane into a building, a large one. Large enough to fit.. well.. a plane. Schlatt saw people. 

Real people.

People in black police uniforms, a protective bulletproof vest and all a security guard should have. He admired the shiny, identical rifle they all carried in hand. It looked like an M4, or was it an M16? Fuck, those two guns were indistinguishable.

One of the guards stepped fowards, signaling for the crew to get out of the plane. Feta and QP-E got out first, then Schlatt and Wil. The security guards patted them down, (for the robots, they disabled their weapons and took them into an intel scan room,) wrote down their names on a clipboard and led them into a room containing a full body scanner.

Schlatt saw two guards whispering to eachother and then muttering into their walkie-talkies, but all Schlatt did was furrow his brows and shrug. He stepped into the scanner, and after a few seconds he heard an audible, "his name is Schlatt?!", panicked shout from the room nextdoor. Out of curiosity, Schlatt turned his head.

An officer comes bursting out from the door, flipping up his helmet shield and loosing his proud and straight posture. His face was pale and wore a look of disbelief.

"Schlatt!" The officer said, his voice cracking slightly. He set his weapon against the wall clumsily.

Schlatt's face went from uninterested, to 'I'm going to fucking kill you" In the span of a few seconds.

"Fucking asshole.." Schlatt muttered harshly, stepping up to the officer and punching him in the nose before any of the other guards could react.

"W-wait! You don't understand!" The officer stuttered, falling back against the wall. "I wasn't with them! I was never part of their plan!" Guards surrounded him, asking him if they should arrest Schlatt, but the officer waved them off.

Schlatt was going in for a stomach blow with his heel, but was held back by Wil and some of the other security.

"So why didn't you take me with you, huh? You didn't even tell me! You left me to fucking die!" Schlatt spat, writhing in the grip of the guards' restraint. "Tell me, Connor, why?!" 

"I-I just..! They-" 

Before Connor could finish his sentence Schlatt was kicked out of the room for questioning. Connor slid down the wall and wiped his bloody nose with his sleeve, sighing heavily in distress.

"Are you okay?" Wil asked Connor, holding out a hand for him to take.

Connor glanced up, then sighed, waving his hand disapprovingly. "So you're his new travel-buddy..? I guess it didn't take long to replace me, didn't it?" He laughed and rolled his eyes, going into a minor coughing fit after talking. (Don't you dare make corona jokes-)

Wil pulled back his hand and sighed. He was tired of everyone suddenly going hostile towards him. First Carson, then Connor? Whoever those people were, Schlatt obviously meant sonething to them.

Wil started to walk towards the exit, but Connor called out to him.

"Wait!" He said, pulling himself up with visible pain contorting through his face. "Please give him this." Connor pulled out a crumpled, stained letter from his interior chest pocket and handed it to Wil. "I was supposed to give it to him.. a long time ago.. but I..." he paused and looked down with a sad, empty look in his eyes. "Just give it to him, please..?" 

Wil nodded and took the letter in between two fingers. "Sure.." Wil muttered, wondering why Connor had the letter. Did he always carry it with him? It was like he was waiting for this moment to come. 

Wil headed out the door to where Schlatt was. He was siging paperwork, suprisingly.

"He said to give you this." Wil said, handing the letter to Schlatt.

Schlatt averted his attention, and he frowned in irritation. "What?" 

"He wants you to read it." Wil shook the letter in his fingertips. "Something about wanting to give it to you sooner.." 

Schlatt handed Wil the clipboard he was holding in exchange for the letter. "It's a bunch of agreements and stuff. Nothing crazy." Schlatt said, nodding once at the clipboard.

Wil signed the paperwork while Schlatt read the letter.

~recap for people who forgot what happened to Schlatt and why he got mad at Connor~

Carson smiled. "Gone. Our little group corrupted ever since you left!" He said the emphasized 'you' through gritted teeth."Travis got himself eaten by marauders! Cooper got cannibalized by some bandits...Connor left too! I don't know where the fuck he went.." 

"You're fucking delusional. Don't play dumb. You and I both know I didn't leave." Schlatt said.

Carson lost character for a moment, turning a little pale before regaining his composure. "No! You fucking left! Tell me what happened then, huh? What do you remember?" 

"At that auto tech shop. You and the others thought you were being sneaky, huh? Leave first thing in the morning and leave me with the marauder outside you knew was there!" Schlatt retaliated.

Carson was dead silent. He'd been caught. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Long story short, Schlatt's crew decided to ditch him at a car shop with a marauder, and then leave in the middle of the night. Schlatt thought Connor was part of that plan.

Schlatt's anger dissapated as he read.

Dear Schlatt,

The others (more specifically, Carson) have decided to leave you at the auto tech shop with the marauder we scouted out yesterday (I'm sure you've figured that out by now.) I've been threatened into leaving the crew by dusk otherwise my death will be (garunteed) granted early for me. For the next few weeks I'll be setting temporary camp in the 199 Delta Trading Post north of the STR Hospital a few miles down the road. I'll be waiting, so get your ass over here.

Sincerely,  
Connor

At the very bottom of the letter, a scratchy and scribbled sentence was written. It read; 

I'm so sorry Schlatt. I couldn't get this to you. It was too late. They knew. I'm so sorry.

Schlatt dropped the letter and tried to re-enter the check-in room, but was blocked off by security.

"I- I need to apologize! I- he- just let me-!" He said weakly, fighting the security.

Connor stepped out from the doorway, stepping through the wall of guards and to Schlatt. 

Schlatt stepped back and picked up the letter. "I'm sorry.. I just.. I never knew.." he muttered, clenching the letter in his hand.

Connor didn't respond, but instead he held his arms out, offering a hug to Schlatt. Schlatt accepted and gave Connor a meaningful, long lasting bro hug, slapping him on the back when they pulled away.

Wil watched in interest, mildly jealous of 'Connor.'

Connor whispered to Schlatt, then stepped away from the group to take a phone call. Feta and QP-E came out from the check-in room shortly after.

"Oh, I remember him." Feta said, turning towards Connor, then back to Schlatt. "From your brain scan back in Stradmouth. He betrayed you, correct?" 

QP-E pulled out a disabled mini-chainsaw from his back, lunging fowards. "Oh yeah! Feta told me about him! Do I need to kill him? Ooh, may I kill him? Please?" He asked excitedly.

Schlatt gave QP a worried half-grin. "What? No! It's okay now, we resolved some things. No need for.. cold blooded murder.." 

"Awh.." QP pouted and retrieved his mini-chainsaw. 

"If I may ask, what did you resolve? I don't see much that that could have been done so." Feta questioned.

"Well-he-I-.. it's easier if you just scan me again." Schlatt said, pointing at his head.

"Of course." 

The scan was done in a few seconds, and apparently the information was transferred to QP-E, because he seemed to know all about it. 

"Oh, that's just desolate! I'm glad you two worked things out!" QP sympathized. He turned to Schlatt and then Wil, his body language conveying that he suddenly remembered something. "And I want to apologize for inturrupting your 'spur of the moment' back on that island. I just couldn't help myself!" He sighed dramatically. "Perhaps one day I will witness greatness once again...and I won't ruin it this time!" He pointed at himself with both of his thumbs, and bounced himself slightly with his heels.

Schlatt and Wil got embarrassed and flushed, scratching their necks and becoming suddenly hyper-aware of their arms hanging at their sides.

QP tilted his head, confused. "Wait, you two.. aren't.. like.. together? Huh, I never even noticed! You do realize it's so very inordinately obvious you two have feelings for eac-" he was cut off when Feta harshly smacked him in the leg with her robotic claw-hand. "Ow.." he mumbled.

Connor walked up beside Schlatt, shoving his phone into his pocket.

"Okay. I already got you set up with a job and a house, you're all set." Connor said, slapping Schlatt on the back. "And you're all red. What happened?"

"I saw when I was signing those papers. How'd you do it so.. fast..?" Schlatt asked, completely ingoring his second question. 

"If you couldn't already tell, I've been waiting for this moment for a while. When I came here I was almost immediately promoted to officer because of my combat and management expertise. Every day I scrapped up whatever extra money I had to reserve a place and position for you, if you ever managed to get here. Now that I think about it, it was actually a comfort mechanism.. anyways.. now you're finally here, all of my hard work has finally paid off.." he said, joy glinting off his eye. "You work for me, by the way. Kind of like my right hand man." 

(Oh how the turntables..)

Schlatt raised his eyebrows. "Thanks Connor, you're the goat, man..." Schlatt looked down, biting his lip, "and let me pay for the mortgage after I get myself settled in, alright? I saw in thosepapers you signed yourself up to pay for it. You've already done enough, you don't have to keep beating yourself up over what happened."

Connor frowned, but nodded softly in understanding. His phone audibly buzzed in his pocket, and soon after he checked it, he turned around to walk away. "Thank you, Schlatt. Anyways, I got to get back to work, good luck."

"Wait!" Connor was about to leave, but Schlatt stopped him. "Where's the real estate office?"

Connor leaned on the doorframe. "Just north of the water fountain."

"Wait, what water fountain?"

Connor laughed and waved his hand. "You'll know when you see it."

"Alright... you also wanna grab a drink at a bar sometime? If there's a bar..?" 

"Yeah, sure! There's a bar named 'Victoriam's' east of the real estate office. How's 8:00pm next Wednesday? I'm off."

Schlatt grinned. "Sounds good. Later!" He departed from Connor and returned to the rest of the crew. A couple security guards escorted them to the city square.

Connor wasn't kidding when he said "you'll know when you see it."

The water fountain was unmistakably 25 or 30 feet high (8&10yd). Its intricate carvings and smooth curves potrayed as elegant. LED lights lined the arcs and loops, alternating between festive colors rhythmically.

The water flowed from top to bottom seamlessly, so flawless it seemed like it wasn't moving at all. It looked like an ice sculpture, or that time had stopped on that particular fountain. Arches of water spewed from holes on the fountain floor, splashing on the broad cap of the fountain All having the same frozen appearance as the rest of the water. It almost seemed like something was supposed to sit there at the cap, but he didn't assume.

Apparently, the water fountain was called "Blithe." It was a tribute to itself, Greenland and its people for surviving the war.

After gawking and marvelling at the "Blithe," they finally headed towards the real-estate office. The inside was so refined, modern and clean, they had never seen anything like it in so long.

An mature woman who appeared to be in her mid-50's sat at her desk in the middle of the building, one hand on top of the other, looking as if she had been expecting them. Her hair was shoulder length and graying, but she looked outstanding for her age. She even had a streak of blue dye in her hair, which looked rather familiar..

"Welcome to The Other Side. I was told you were Connor's long lost friend, Schlatt, yes? I hope everything worked out between you two, he's a sweet boy, really. When he arrived he was just simply heartbroken, rambling about you and his adventures from dawn to dusk." The elderly woman spoke in a comforting and gentle tone. "We had him get signed up with a therapist, he's mutch better now. I think they might even be.. invovled with eachother, if you grasp my intention." She snickered, but it came off more playful than mocking. "Don't tell him I said that.. anyways, I'm Lucy Kuo. I'm the real-estate agent around here." She held out her hand in front of her desk.

Schlatt shook her hand, while Wil wore a shocked expression on his face. 

"Wait, the Lucy Kuo? Like the singer from the 2050's" Wil shook her hand after Schlatt.

"The one and only." She winked and smiled warmly.

"Holy shit- I'm sorry I mean I'm a fan! I used to listen to your music all the time whenever I got bored in my old bunker back at Stradmouth."

Lucy raised her eyebrows. "Oh, Stradmouth? The city of pointless prosper and forlorn opportunity? I remember, in my twenties I always used to preform in that mall.. what was its name..? Semenside?"

"Seamside!?" Wil squeaked. "The giant scultpure of you is still there! I saw it right before I left! I'm still bummed I never got to go to any of your concerts because of war and stuff... even then, I used to live in England so I wouldn't have been able to go anyways. Do you still hold auditions, by the way?"

Lucy laughed wholeheartedly. "Oh, those days of multiple daily auditions are way behind me, love. But I still hold a weekly audition on top of the Blithe, yes." 

Schlatt almost choked on his own spit. "Wait, like, on top of the fountain? All the way up?" 

"Yes, I know. Seems terrifying, and it was terrifying when I first did it, but after a few auditions you get used to being thirty feet above the ground. I hold an audition every friday, which is also today at 8:00pm this evening, if you're interested in coming."

Wil almost exploded. "Yes, of course!" 

"Me too, I guess." Schlatt scoff-laughed.

"Now that's just ravishing! I'll see you two until then!" Lucy typed on her little holo-laptop for a moment before printing out a piece of paper."Here you go, sugarplums. Enjoy your new future here." She handed them the paper that included the address of their new house and such

"Thank you Ms.Kuo!" Wil shouted as he left through the door, Schlatt shouted a "Thanks!" aswell.

When they left, Lucy whispered to her assistant about how cute they are together, and if they were together. They giggled about it like schoolgirls.

Some guards escorted Wil, Schlatt, Feta and QP-E into a vehicle. More specifically, a military truck, and drove them to their new house.

Quickly, they realized the house was located away from the city, and was more on the countryside. Not that they were complaining, that was far more optimal than a city apartment, for sure. More grass than modern structures started to fade into their surroundings, then more trees and soil.

After riding through a few twists and turns and a few bumps in the road, they arrived at a decently sized forest cabin. They bursted out excitedly, exploring the area. The guards stayed near the truck, setting camp somewhere in the area.

They were located on a high cliff overlooking the whole city. QP-E marvelled and rambled over how many picnics could be held there. They pointed at the city lights as if they were stargazing, and made rather worrying jokes about jumping off the cliff.

But frankly, fatigue overcame enthusiasm, and they started to settle into their cabin.

It was odd walking into a place you were going to call home for the rest of your life for the first time. The surroundings were so unfamiliar, the foreign smell it had you weren't used to now on everything you touched. It's almost.. intimidating.

There were only two bedrooms, since when Connor reserved the place he thought Schlatt would have arrived with just himself or one other person, certainly not four.

Fortunately, Feta and QP-E really didn't need to sleep, so they hung out and kept guard outside. Schlatt and Wil went into their seperate bedrooms (Schlatt downstairs and Wil upstairs), and started to unpack.

Amidst of unpacking, Wilbur pulled out the Grow'n'go meant to grow his new husky dog. He stared at it eagerly, then decied set it on his nightstand for next morning.

\---

Schlatt sat up uncomfortably at around 3:00am, contemplating. 

He tugged at his own hair, then dragged his hands over his eyes. He leaned his face on his palms with his elbows on his knees.

He couldn't sleep. There was just too much going on. The sudden change in surroundings, the drama, 

Wilbur

He couldn't stop thinking about him, to put it briefly. He wondered if Wil ever did the same.

Should I confess to him?  
I think he likes me.  
He almost kissed me for fuck's sake of course he likes me.  
But does he?   
Was it a bluff?  
What kind of fucking bluff was that, then?  
Won't I feel better if I just confess?  
But what if I ruin our friendship?  
It's already ruined.  
I have to tell him at some point.  
What if he likes me back?   
What if he doesn't?  
Will he leave? Stay?  
Fuck.

These thoughts ran through his head, rendering it impossible to sleep.

Since this was the case, he decided to ask Feta for an minor sleeping drug of some sort, even if it was most likely expired. Although, he would've thought by 2068, medicine would be able to witstand a decade or two soley sitting in a cupboard. He creeped through the hallway and to the door, reminiscing how he used to do it when he snuck out the house in his early adolescent years for..whatever reason. A late night snack at Dairy-Queen with the boys perhaps?

He creaked the front door open carefully, stepping out onto the cool grass with bare feet. The breeze was chilling, but pleasant, as it swept away tension like the trusty broom your family has been using for at least 10 years. 

(Get a new broom, mom. Plz.)

He was immediately greeted by QP-E, who was pointing at and admiring the constellations.

"Oh, hello Schlatt! It's rather late out, aren't humans supposed to sleep around this hour?" QP turned towards Schlatt, tilting his head innocently. The bushes and the trees rustled and waved in the wind, as if it was trying to agree with him.

"Well, yeah. I just can't sleep. I was going to ask Feta to give me some sleeping drugs, actually. Where is she, by the way?"

"She's building a fence around that cliff! She won't admit it, but I think she got a little concerned after you guys joked about jumping off!" He whispered excitedly.

"That's... thoughtful. I'll be sure to thank her. Thanks, QP." He waved QP-E before departing to look for Feta.

"You're welcome!" QP chirped, and waved back before going back to stargazing.

"Hey, Feta. You think you could lend me something to help me sleep? 

Feta secured a screw into her new fence before turning to Schlatt. She stayed silent for a moment, her eyes flashing a mundane blue before answering.

"Yes, you should confess." Feta said, opening a slot on her arm and handing him a sleeping pill. "You already know he has feelings for you, why are you stalling?" 

"Well- I..." he paused. "..wait, what..?"

"In the lab, when I scanned your brain. I transferred the information to you, didn't I? I probably should have taken into consideration that you most likely wouldn't remember, taken you were in an awfully trauma-induced state, and that even if you were to recall the information, you probably would have thought of it as nothing more than a lucid dream."

"That's not even what I-" Schlatt ran a hand through his hair, scoffing. "I-I thought that was just a.. yeah! A lucid dream! I didn't know you actually said it holy shit!" Schlatt clenched his hands purely from distress.

"Yes! Yes! Do it! Confess! Absolutely do it!" QP shouted from his prone position in the grass.

Schlatt bit his lip, staring intently at a random fern on the ground before making up his mind. "...okay.. alright! I'm gonna do it! Tomorrow I'll do it!" Schlatt whispered, as if he was encouraging himself. "Thanks guys!" He waved as he opened the door back to the house. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-tomorrow morning-

It was early morning, about 6:00am. Schlatt assumed the pills he was given weren't really effective, but it got the job done. Well, half-assed anyways. When he entered the kitchen, he was greeted with the scene of Feta cooking pancakes with QP-E's arms around her waist, looking over her shoulder.

Cute..

Schlatt smiled, admiring the two.

QP-E flinched back as soon as he saw Schlatt staring.

"Oh! Hello Schlatt!" He laughed nervously. "Pancakes!.. not yet.. but pancakes soon..!...oh, and good luck!" 

Schlatt smiled. "Thanks, QP." He seated himself on the living room couch, coming up with what he would say. He nervously fiddled with his fingers, every now and then wiping sweat off his palms with his pants. 

Morning was subtle, sunlight glistened in the windows, not quite shining all the way through. The smell of pancake batter and maple syrup wafted around the house. 

He was relatively calm, until he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

Oh god oh fuck shiitake fucknuts

He saw Wil greet Feta and QP-E, and then walk around like he was trying to find something. Then he spotted Schlatt, and starting walking towards him. 

Oh shit what the fuck do I say..?? Schlatt panicked and shifted.

"Hey Schlatt, so you want to grow that dog right now?" He held the Grow'n'go between his fingertips. "Because now would be a good time." (Never thought I would write or think of that in my life..)

"I-uh-maybe in a little bit.." Schlatt mumbled.

"Alright.." Wil shrugged, and turned to walk away.

"Wait!" Schlatt shouted. He clenched his jaw after talking, somewhat regretting speaking up.

Wil turned back around, a ray of faded sunlight perfectly hitting his face. 

"I-so.. fuck.. how do I say this.. I had it down just a minute ago.." he scratched the back of his neck. "You're-I.." Schlatt paused, sighing and starting over. "So.." Schlatt muttered. "I know this is really profound.. well, maybe not..but that's not the point.. fuck.." He buried his face in his hands out of embarrassment. "..I.. have a.. confession.." He muttered in his palms.

Wil smiled ever so slightly, his heart panging a feeling of empathy in his chest. he knew what he was trying to say, and his stomach did summersaults at the mere thought of it. He tried to sympathize with Schlatt.

"I proposition something.." Wil grinned slightly, "what if I confess something at the same time? You confess, I confess?"

Schlatt looked up, hiding his cheeks. He caught on to what Wil meant. "..okay.. good idea. On the count of three?"

"Yeah, sure." Wil's eye glinted in mischief. 

"One..two..three! I love you!" Schlatt blurted.

"I used to own a ahegao flamethrower!" Wil smirked, but he hid it behind his sleeves, acting as if he was embarrassed.

Schlatt's eyes widened in shock, and he spewed out meaningless shit. "Wait-I what..? But I- that- I thought-" he exhaled loudly in exasperation, leaning back into the couch.

Wil felt bad for him, and in a matter of seconds gave in to his own trick. "I'm just fuckin' with you. I love you too." Wil chuckled.

"Oooh thank fuck.." Schlatt sighed, a big grin plastered on his face when he leaned back fowards. "I know this is kind of..indecent of me to ask, but can we try out that kiss again?" Schlatt grinned sheepishly, blushing like a festive mall santa.

In return, Wil grinned, bouncing his leg in his newfound joy. "Yes! Of course!" Wil exclaimed. He set down the Grow'n'go and gladly took Schlatt's cheeks in his hands. The two were too overwhelmingly delighted to even be in the slightest ashamed.

The first time they leaned in they completely missed and ended kissing eachother's cheeks. The second time they just bonked noses.  
They both laughed it off, but were truly dying inside.

"Wow, when did kissing get so hard?" Schlatt sighed, giggling silently. He sighed through his nose, closing his eyes.

"Honestly, I don't even know.." Wil said. He tried out something new; he turned his head when Schlatt leaned in the third time, and they landed it, ending in a sweet, long kiss.

It wasn't a perfect kiss, it was sloppy, amateur, and their lips were chapped to hell, but in their eyes it was the best kiss in the world. Wil brought his hand up to Schlatt's hair, running his hands through the short-cut, then down and past his neck, where he kept it, the other hand on Schlatt's cheek bandage.

It was something like none of them would have imagined. Something one could even describe as warm butter against your lips, or a Honda S2000 revving up inside your chest as your lips moved against the others'.

It was passionate more than anything, and when they pulled away they were a panting mess (hence forgetting to breathe the whole time). Wil put his hand over his chest, feeling the thrash of his own heartbeat against his ribcage. He smiled, trying to inhale steadily.

"That one was the good." Wil whispered, breathless. He laughed.

"Agreed." Schlatt grabbed the Grow'n'Go off the desk and took a seat next to Wil.

"Ooohh my godd!" QP-E clenched his fists in excitement and squealed. He ran out the house, visibly rolling around in the grass through the glass door.

"Well, now do you want to do the Grow'n'go?" Schlatt grinned.

"Fuck yes." Wil stared at Schlatt smugly, nodding."Let's get QP and Feta to help us too... not that we need it.. but I don't think they've ever seen a dog- or pup before. Especially QP-E." 

Schlatt glanced at QP, who was still freaking out outside, and smiled. "Yeah.. yeah. Let's do it then."

___

"What is that!?" QP screamed, pointing at the newborn husky puppy lounging around in the sunlight on the floor. 

Schlatt chuckled, remembering how Wil and himself reacted to the crab back on the island.

He still didn't know what the fuck that thing was.

"It's a dog... or a puppy, to be specific.." Schlatt said, cleaning his pancake plate in the sink and went to lean against the wall bordering the kitchen and living room.

QP stayed silent for a moment, before tilting his head and asking ever so innocently: "Is it some sort of food..?" He poked at its belly gently, pulling his hand back like the pup burned him when it yelped and flopped around on the floor helplessly. "You're going to use it as a source of dairy, I suppose?" 

Schlatt scoffed in surprise, opening his mouth to laugh, but nothing but a stifled sigh came out. "I- uhm.. no.. actually.. they're pets. Not to eat, not to milk..." Schlatt grinned and set his fingers on the bridge of his nose out of QP's petulance. "Not to mention this one was literally grown from a pill in a water bowl. Its meat is probably.. edible.. but it's still synthetic, nonetheless. It probably wouldn't be healthy either, or good." 

"That's.. odd. You mean you keep them because.. they're- just- there..? Why would you keep something of this fragility with you? As a pet no matter?" QP stared at the miniscule blob of a lifeform squiggling around on the floor like an exposed grub. The pup looked to be about newborn, as its eyes hadn't opened yet and its hair was still a faint peach-fuzz.

Schlatt sighed, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes in a serene manner. "Well, for company, stress relief.. excessive vaccuming.. they're not so tiny and fragile after a couple of months anyways. They grow, like humans. About the size of you, actually, if you curled up in a ball."

QP bounced his leg enthusiastically, and dropped to the floor to tuck his elbows in between his legs and cross his ankles. He hid his head behind his knees, poking his head out after a couple of seconds. "Like this?" 

Schlatt laughed through his nose in amusement, nodding. "Exactly."

Wil appeared from the staircase, descending, but stopped when he saw QP-E, Schlatt and the pup. He walked up next to Schlatt, pecking him on the cheek. "What's happening here?" Wil asked, stretching his arm to the side and up.

"QP's just meeting New Milo. He hatched from that pill just a few minutes ago." Schlatt kissed him back, returning to leaning on the wall with a permanent smile on his face. QP stared at them, clenching his hands through a feeling of euphoria for them.

Wil sat down next to New Milo, gently stroking the outer parts of its ears. In response, in whined and tried to crawl towards him. He picked the puppy up, cradling it like a mother to her child.

Schlatt's smile only grew wider. Still in disbelief on how he managed to have someone as caring, handsome, and kind as Wilbur. He took a seat next to him, playing with the puppy aswell. 

____

It was around 8:30

A handful of locals gathered around the Blithe, whispering and giggling in anticipation. Wil, Schlatt, Feta, QP-E and Connor all got front row seats, due to Lucy reserving them for the "reunites." They smiled and laughed too, there wasn't any reason why they shouldn't.

A loud rumble thundered throughout the town square, hushing the audience almost immediately. The LED lights on the fountain switched to a pink/purple/blue, alternating between the three colors. 

Lucy Kuo rose up to the top of the fountain from some kind of platform, waving and blowing kisses to the audience. Wil grinned, sneaking his arm around Schlatt's waist to pull him closer.

She wore a stunning, vibrant blue frill gown riddled with various iridescent gems and beads. She was surprisingly slim and curvy for her age. She practically glowed in the sundown, the warm purples, pinks and oranges reflecting off her dress like a disco ball. People awed and wowed, clapping admiringly for Lucy. 

"Thank all of you for coming to this evening's audition, you're all amazing, my little honeydews!" She flashes a grin that was to be seen for miles. She bows, steady and confident, amazingly so for how high up she was. "I'll be singing "While We're Young," tonight, originally written by the simply outstanding Peggy Lee. Enjoy, loves." She bows once again, and takes straightens herself out to prepare. The audience claps again, some locals hooted and shouted at her encouragingly. 

The soft rythmic playing of a piano reveberated from somewhere in the fountain. Not too loud, not too quiet, but just loud enough to clearly hear Lucy's voice. Lucy smiled softly, eyes closed in concentration.

"Songs were meant to sing, while we're young.." 

Some people shut their eyes, some stared in admiration. Some leaned on their lovers, like Schlatt and Wil.

"Everyday is spring, while we're young.."

QP hugs Feta from the side, resting his head on her shoulder.

"None can refuse, time flies so fast. Too dear to loose and too sweet to last.."

"You know," Schlatt said, barely mumbling, his voice softspoken, "I really don't even know who you are, or what your story is, or what you were doing back in Stradmouth, and I'm so sorry, this sounds so cheesy but.." 

Wil turned towards Schlatt, breaking contact for just a second before taking Schlatt's hands in his own, intertwining their fingers. Wil had the softest look in his eyes, and the sweetest most sincere smile. Schlatt's breath caught in his throat for a second, and he had to look away for a moment to avoid going into a choking fit. When he looked back up, Wil was still staring at him with those swirly chocolate eyes of his. Schlatt swallowed thickly, resisting the urge to just kiss him then and there.

It was like Wil read his mind, because he started to lean in. Schlatt gladly took the opportunity, melting into the kiss as soon as their lips touched. It was like a fire on gasoline, a candle liquifying under a lit end. Adrenaline sparked everywhere throughout their bodies, like a match to a matchbox. When they pulled away, it was like some kind of deprivation, and it didn't take long before they went in for seconds. Schlatt pulled away, wanting to speak before he forgot. 

From the fountain, Lucy smirked at them, the smile on her face somehow audible through her singing. She winked at them, raising her arm up and down in a dance of grace.

"Out of all the people I could've ran into, out of all the people I could've been stuck with.." Schlatt set his forehead against Wilbur's, sighing.

"I'm glad I was Stranded With You."

____

Total word count -

36,726


End file.
